LB 

1065 

A3 

1895 

MAIN 


IODS  OF  MIND-TRAINING 


^ 


METHODS  OF  MIND-TRAINING 


CONCENTRATED  ATTENTION 

AND 

MEMORY 


BY 


CATHARINE  AIKEN 


"Attention  is  the  stuff  that  memory  is  made  o/, 
and  memory  is  accumulated  genius." 

JAMKS  RUBSKI.L  LOWELT, 


NEW    YORK   •:•   CINCINNATI   •:•   CHICAGO 

AMERICAN    BOOK    COMPANY 


Copyright,  1895,  by  HARPER  &  B BOTH KB 

All  rigktt  retervect. 
W.    P.   2 


A3 


TO 
MY   GIRLS 

WHO   THROUGH    EARNESTNESS  AND  ATTENTION 
HAVE   BEEN    MY    INSPIRATION 


;  05425 


CONTENTS 


OUAP.  PAOB 

INTRODUCTION 8 

I.    OBJECT  OF  THE  SYSTEM 17 

II.    THE  SYSTEM  EXPLAINED 28 

III.  ATTENTION   AND  MEMORY 46 

IV.  TO  TEACHERS* 61 

CONCLUSION 74 

APPENDIX     .                                .      .  79 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


No.  1 — Exercise  for  quick  perception 

and  attention Facing  page     18 

No.  2 — Exercise  for  rapidity  and  accu- 
racy in  sight-reading "  "  24 

No.  3 — Exercise  for  accuracy  in  dis- 
criminating    "  "  30 

No.  4 — Exercise  for  unconscious 

counting "  "  36 

No.  6 — Exercise  for  accuracy  in  re- 
calling objects  in  their  places,  and 
in  their  relation  to  other  objects  .  "  "  42 

No.  6 — Glance -work  from  revolving 

blackboard "  "  48 

No.  7 — Eight  examples  from   second 

figure  in  No.  6     ........  "  "  54 

No.  8— Tile  patterns "  "  58 

No.  9 — Glance-work  from  objects  .     .  "  "  64 

No.  10— Time  sketches    .               ,     .  "  "  70 


MIND -TRAINING 


INTRODUCTION 

I  AM  often  asked  why  I  was  led  to 
change  the  methods  of  teaching  which 
I  had  pursued  with  more  or  less  suc- 
cess for  thirty  years. 

Rather  should  the  question  be  why 
I  had  adopted  a  method  at  all  after  so 
many  years  of  teaching  without  any  ; 
for,  in  common  with  many  others  of 
my  profession,  my  teaching  had  lacked 
method. 

In  order  that  the  motive  for  adopt- 
ing a  different  course  may  be  better 
understood,  it  is  needful  to  consider 
some  of  the  causes  which  had  pro- 
duced in  my  mind  serious  dissatisfac- 
tion with  the  customary  school  work 
and  its  results. 

Some    one    has    written   that    "the 


way  to  perfection  is  through  a  series 
of  disgusts."  To  limit  this  assertion, 
and  apply  it  to  my  own  experience,  I 
may  say  that,  though  far  from  reach- 
ing perfection,  my  way  to  a  quicker 
and  broader  developing  of  the  minds 
of  my  pupils  was  through  a  series  of 
dissatisfactions.  It  had  long  been  made 
plain  to  me  that  there  was  much  in  the 
processes  of  teaching  and  of  gaining 
knowledge  that  failed  of  reaching  suc- 
cessful ends. 

A  thorough  acquaintance  with  the 
pupils  of  many  schools  showed  me  that 
a  great  disparity  between  labor  and 
gain  characterized  our  system  of  edu- 
cation. That  the  evil  exists  no  less  in 
the  schools  of  Great  Britain  than  in 
those  of  our  own  country  is  true,  but 
with  greater  hope  of  reform,  since  the 
fact  is  recognized  by  the  most  eminent 
English  educators.  Says  John  Stuart 
Blackie :  "  In  no  department  of  human 
activity  (as  in  English  teaching)  is  there 
such  a  pretentious  display  of  power 


with  such  a  beggarly  account  of  re- 
sults." 

Mr.  Gladstone,  in  referring  to  the 
subject,  calls  the  results  "  scandalously 
small,"  and  uses  Goldsmith  to  say, 

"  They  learn  but  little  here  below; 
And  learn  that  little  ill." 

That  the  teacher's  task  in  these  days 
of  extravagant  demands  presents  many 
discouragements  admits  of  no  denial. 
The  varied  and  multiplied  subjects  which 
the  study  of  the  sciences  includes,  the 
practical  importance  which  art  in  its 
different  branches  has  assumed,  the  vast 
amount  of  history  and  literature  which 
has  accumulated,  and,  which  is  by  no 
means  least  in  the  account,  the  high 
standard  of  musical  attainment,  render 
it  difficult,  if  not  hopeless,  to  educate  a 
girl  by  the  ordinary  methods  so  that 
she  shall  be  able  to  meet  the  require- 
ments of  her  position  with  even  a  fair 
degree  of  intelligence  and  ability.  Is 
it  not  plain,  in  order  that  the  student 


shall  obtain  the  power  and  intelligence 
that  is  expected,  in  view  of  her  so-called 
advantages,  that  either  the  years  spent 
at  school  must  be  extended,  or  some 
more  efficient  aid  in  the  acquisition  of 
knowledge  must  be  employed?  As  to 
the  former,  every  teacher  of  private 
schools  knows  that  no  more  time  will 
be  allowed.  The  years  granted  to  the 
school-girl  are  grudgingly  given,  and 
often  from  these  much  time  is  pilfered 
by  social  distractions. 

According  to  the  usual  plan  of  study, 
the  conscientious  scholar  will  have  spent 
from  six  to  eight  hours  each  day,  for 
at  least  five  days  in  the  week,  for  three- 
fourths  of  the  year,  during  twelve  or 
thirteen  years,  in  laborious  mental  oc- 
cupation. In  pursuing  the  English 
branches  alone  she  will  have  "gone 
through  "  fifty  or  more  text-books,  em- 
bracing the  subjects  taught  generations 
ago,  and  also  many  new  works  upon 
modern  science,  art,  history,  political 
economy,  literature,  and  philosophy, 


held  out.  It  was  not  that  school-books 
were  not  gone  through  and  every  ques- 
tion in  the  book  faithfully  asked  and 
answered.  Occasionally  there  were  ex- 
ceptional teachers  to  be  met  so  pre- 
sumptuous as  to  propound  a  question 
which  was  not  in  the  book,  or  to  ask 
for  the  reason  of  some  glibly  stated 
answer.  This  departure  was  looked 
upon  by  the  ever- watchful  scholar  as 
rather  an  unfair  proceeding,  and  the 
questions  of  the  erratic  teacher,  like 
the  too-personal  interrogatories  of  the 
preacher,  savored  very  much  of  taking 
advantage  of  the  situation. 

I  remember  well  an  incident  in  my 
early  experience  as  a  teacher  which  il- 
lustrates the  feeling  which  then  existed 
in  the  minds  of  pupils  in  regard  to  the 
customary  methods  of  teaching.  Among 
my  scholars  was  a  lad  who,  in  common 
with  others,  had  been  accustomed  to 
learn  his  lessons  and  recite  them  in  the 
orthodox  fashion  of  question  and  answer 
in  their  regular  order.  One  day  he 


10 


went  home  from  school  in  a  very 
angry  mood.  When  questioned  as  to 
the  cause  of  his  unhappy  state  of  mind, 
he  exclaimed,  with  great  feeling,  "  I 
never  want  to  go  to  school  to  her  again 
as  long  as  I  live  !  She  teaches  more 
than  she  knows.  To-day  she  asked  me 
questions  that  were  not  in  the  book, 
and  I  can't  stand  it  any  longer,  and, 
what  is  more,  I  do  not  believe  she  could 
answer  them  herself  !"  And  in  this  he 
was  probably  right,  for  even  then  to 
impart  knowledge  was  not  my  only  aim. 

And  here  I  may  venture  to  assert  my 
belief  that  all  teachers  may  be  divided 
into  two  classes :  those  who  can  teach 
more  than  they  know,  and  those  who 
cannot  teach  as  much  as  they  know ; 
the  former  are  the  more  successful. 

By  the  word  teaching  as  here  used  I 
do  not  mean  merely  giving  instruction, 
but  rather  the  asking  of  questions  which 
the  teacher  may  not  be  fully  able  to 
answer,  but  such  as  will  awaken  in  the 
mind  of  the  scholar  a  discriminating 


11 


activity,  that  will  tend  to  enlarge  the 
understanding  to  a  greater  degree  than 
the  precise  question  of  the  more  learned 
instructor  and  the  correct  answer  learn- 
ed by  heart  and  not  by  head. 

But  my  greatest  cause  for  dissatisfac- 
tion was  in  this :  that  the  prevailing 
mode  of  teaching  did  not  train  the  fac- 
ulties of  the  pupil,  after  all.  I  had  no 
special  cause  for  complaint  in  that  my 
pupils  did  not  study  diligently ;  but 
when  I  took  account  of  the  mental 
stock,  not  to  speak  of  the  general  knowl- 
edge, which  the  average  girl  of  eighteen 
years  has  laid  up,  with  which  to  enter 
into  the  business  of  life  for  herself,  I 
felt  that  she  would  either  be  compelled 
to  suspend  until  experience  came  to  her 
aid,  or  fail  altogether.  Surely  there 
was  no  lack  of  indefatigable  instructors, 
profound  professors,  and  learned  lectur- 
ers, while  the  fact  remained  that  the 
girl  left  school  without  having  formed 
habits  of  attention, accurate  observation, 
and  discrimination,  or  gained  power 


12 


for  logical  thought  and  comprehensive 
study,  and  if  she  knew  her  own  empti- 
ness, might  exclaim,  after  the  manner  of 
Paul,  "And  though  I  have  all  knowl- 
edge and  have  no  mental  power  that  I 
can  call  my  own,  I  am  nothing." 

In  the  gloom  of  this  conviction  which 
constantly  oppressed  me,  I  was,  at  times, 
almost  ready  to  cry  out  with  the  retir- 
ing pedagogue, 

"Ere  I  would  wear  my  soul  away 
In  pain  where  each  succeeding  day 

But  beggars  that  before, 
Wood  I  would  hew,  and  water  draw, 
Make  brick  in  full  tale  without  straw, 

As  Israel  did  of  yore." 

It  was  in  the  endeavor  to  find  a  bet- 
ter way  for  the  developing  of  youthful 
minds  than  the  text-books  afforded  that 
my  mind  was  continually  exercised.  I 
often  asked  myself,  "  What  is  wanting 
that  teachers  and  text -books  do  not 
supply?" 

The  best  answer  which  I  have  found 


13 


to  this  perplexing  question  came  to  me 
in  a  very  peculiar  and  unexpected 
manner. 

It  has  been  said,  "  A  child  shall  lead 
them,"  and  in  this  instance  it  was  liter- 
ally true,  for  in  more  senses  than  one  it 
was  a  child  who  led  me  to  catch  a 
glimpse  of  the  better  way  for  which  I 
had  sought  so  earnestly.  Some  small 
friends  had  begged  me  to  take  them  to 
the  circus  which  was  exhibiting  in  the 
town  where  I  had  been  teaching,  and  I 
consented  somewhat  reluctantly.  While 
watching  various  acrobatic  feats,  my  at- 
tention was  particularly  drawn  to  a 
Japanese  lad  of  but  a  few  years,  who 
was  walking  a  tight-rope ;  the  rope  was 
stretched  at  a  height  that  made  the  feat 
extremely  dangerous — a  single  misstep 
as  he  balanced  himself  in  mid-air  would 
have  proved  wellnigh  fatal.  Another 
lad  also  attracted  my  attention  and 
filled  me  with  amazement  by  his  skill 
and  agility  in  rapidly  tossing  up  and 
catching  sharp-bladed  knives. 


14 


What  was  it  which  enabled  each  to 
perform  his  dangerous  feat  without  fal- 
tering or  mistake  ?  The  answer  was  to 
be  found  in  the  fact  that  fear  had  caused 
them  to  rivet  their  attention  upon  their 
tasks  absolutely,  so  that  they  were  ut- 
terly oblivious  to  all  else. 

This  exhibition  of  the  possibilities  of 
concentrated  attention  as  exemplified 
by  the  Japanese  boys  impressed  itself 
upon  my  mind  with  peculiar  force. 

It  was  then  I  realized  the  value  of  a 
mental  power  which  would  aid  me  to 
train  the  mind  to  a  greater  degree  of 
attention  if  another  incentive  than  fear 
could  be  used.  In  casting  about  for 
some  other  urgency  than  that  of  fear,  as 
in  the  case  of  the  Japanese  lads,  I  found 
that  innate  curiosity  which  is  shared  in 
a  greater  or  less  degree  by  all,  ambition, 
and  a  desire  to  excel  would  serve  to 
stimulate  the  mental  activities  and  con- 
centrate the  attention.  These  emo- 
tional states  and  tendencies,  together 
with  association,  while  none  or  all  of 


15 


them  would  create  attention,  would  fur- 
nish the  work  of  directing  and  holding 
the  attention. 

Thus  out  of  an  accidental  discovery 
has  grown  the  system  which  may  be 
characterized  as  means  to  an  end.  This 
I  have  used  with  good  results  in  my 
own  school,  and  of  this  system  I  shall 
treat  in  the  following  pages. 

It  is  Darwin  who  says,  "When  an 
animal  trainer  desires  to  select  monkeys 
for  training,  he  will  take  a  number  of 
them,  range  them  about  him,  and  then 
attempt  to  attract  their  attention  by 
various  performances.  Those  whose  at- 
tention cannot  be  secured  are  cast  out 
as  unfit  for  training." 

Whether  it  is  a  case  of  the  survival 
of  the  fittest  or  not  we  do  not  propose 
to  discuss,  but  it  is  true  that  in  the  sys- 
tem of  exercises  which  I  have  formu- 
lated all  of  the  pupils,  without  exception, 
acquire  very  quickly  the  habit  of  atten- 
tion, a  habit  upon  which  too  strong  an 
emphasis  cannot  be  placed. 


16 


Sometimes  visitors  to  the  school,  when 
they  have  witnessed  the  training  exer- 
cises and  observed  the  rapt  attention  of 
my  scholars,  and  how  quickly  they  have 
perceived  what  was  in  my  mind,  have 
suggested  animal  magnetism,  hypno- 
tism, and  other  isms;  but  there  is  no 
mysterious  or  hidden  influence  at  work 
between  us :  it  is  a  wholly  natural  in- 
teraction that  the  pupil's  mind  takes  on 
— simply  a  form  of  mental  action,  the 
natural  result  of  being  led  daily  in  the 
same  direction  and  through  the  same 
mental  experience. 

In  closing  this  introduction,  I  wish  to 
state  that  this  book  is  not  intended  to 
be  a  treatise  on  psychology,  but  rather 
the  history  of  a  practical  method  of 
applying  psychological  principles,  espe- 
cially those  which  apply  directly  to  the 
subjects  of  attention  and  memory. 


CHAPTER    I 
OBJECT    OF   THE    SYSTEM 

THE  ability  to  concentrate  the  atten- 
tion is  of  inestimable  value. 

A  great  educator  has  said,  "  The  pow- 
er of  attention  constitutes  a  striking 
difference  between  the  trained  and  the 
untrained  intellect."  The  most  super- 
ficial observer  will  be  ready  to  admit 
that  he  who  possesses  the  ability  to 
concentrate  his  attention  at  will,  wheth- 
er his  task  be  the  learning  of  a  trade  or 
profession,  the  solving  of  a  mathemat- 
ical problem,  the  finding  of  a  logical 
sequence  by  means  of  a  chain  of  ab- 
struse reasoning,  or  the  tracing  of  ef- 
fects to  their  causes,  physical  or  meta- 
physical, will  sooner  and  more  satis- 
factorily reach  success  than  he  who, 


18 


though  possessed  of  more  skill  and  learn- 
ing, fails  to  fix  his  attention  upon  his 
subject. 

How  important  it  is,  then,  that  this 
power  should  be  acquired  when  young, 
and  that  the  youthful  student  should 
secure  it  in  some  degree  while  making 
his  first  attempts  at  learning. 

Here,  then,  is  the  important  work  of 
the  teacher.  It  is  in  the  school -room 
that  these  habits  of  attention  should  be 
formed. 

Experience  has  convinced  me  that 
the  chief  factor  in  the  obtaining  of 
knowledge,  in  school  or  out  of  school, 
is  the  ability  to  concentrate  the  atten- 
tion to  such  a  degree  as  to  insure  a 
retentive  memory.  As  so  many,  things 
are  to  be  learned  arbitrarily,  a  system 
which  strives  to  secure  the  ability  of  con- 
centrating the  attention  and  strength- 
ening the  memory  must  prove  invalu- 
able. 

By  means  of  this  important  agency 
the  use  of  the  reasoning  powers  will  be 


No.  1 — Exercise  for  quick  perception  and  attention 


19 


greatly  facilitated,  because  less  ham- 
pered by  the  difficulty  of  acquiring  and 
retaining  the  necessary  technical  knowl- 
edge by  means  of  which  the  thinker  will 
be  enabled  to  hold  the  conditions  more 
firmly  fixed  in  the  mind  while  tracing 
the  question  to  its  logical  conclusion. 

To  a  class  which  has  been  trained  to 
listen  with  steadiness  of  attention,  there 
is  a  large  amount  of  information  which 
the  teacher  may  give  either  from  her 
own  resources  or  from  books,  and  be 
able  to  impart  a  broader  intelligence 
than  the  average  pupil  would  gain  by 
study. 

If  the  teacher  be  an  effective  reader, 
a  requisite  not  to  be  overlooked,  she 
will  make  clear  by  inflection  and  em- 
phasis the  meaning,  which  might  other- 
wise be  obscure,  and  impress  it  upon 
the  minds  of  her  listeners,  who,  having 
attained  a  good  degree  of  mental  activ- 
ity and  the  habit  of  attention,  will  be 
able  to  state  clearly  and  accurately  what 
they  have  heard,  or  to  write  an  intelli- 


20 


gent  synopsis  of  the  same.  The  scien- 
tific studies,  with  their  countless  classi- 
fications and  technical  words,  may  be 
quickly  learned  when  heard  from  the 
teacher's  lips,  and  thus  the  way  will  be 
better  prepared  for  intelligent  study,  at 
a  cost  of  far  less  time  and  effort  than 
when  set  to  the  task  of  committing  to 
memory.  Botany,  Natural  History, 
Mineralogy,  Geology,  and  other  studies 
drawn  from  the  realm  of  nature,  may 
be  successfully  taught  in  a  class  well 
trained  to  listen,  with  little  need  of  text- 
books except  for  reference  or  for  read- 
ing ;  teacher  and  pupils  alike  making 
their  own  researches  and  observations, 
and  sharing  the  results  with  pleasure 
and  satisfaction. 

The  problems  of  the  higher  Mathe- 
matics, Physics,  Astronomy,  and  other 
studies,  will  be  made  easier  to  compre- 
hend when  the  mind  is  able  to  concen- 
trate all  its  powers  upon  the  conditions 
of  the  problem,  the  relations  of  each 
part  to  the  whole,  and  of  causes  to  ef- 


21 


fects.  The  distaste  for  these  studies  so 
common  among  girls  is,  I  believe,  large- 
ly due  to  a  lack  of  mental  preparation. 
The  unsuccessful  student  has  not  been 
trained  to  hold  the  mind  steady  long 
enough  at  once  to  compass  the  condi- 
tions and  meaning  of  the  question,  and 
therefore  becomes  easily  discouraged 
because  of  the  limitations  of  her  un- 
trained mind;  hence,  the  school -girl's 
"  I  can't "  is  often  an  honest  avowal  of 
her  lack  of  ability,  and  the  teacher's 
"  Try  again  "  is  of  no  avail.  It  would  be 
thought  a  strangely  absurd  thing  to  ex- 
pect an  unskilled  mechanic  to  produce 
a  piece  of  intricate  and  useful  work- 
manship without  a  thorough  knowledge 
of  the  use  of  his  tools  and  of  the  ma- 
chinery necessary  for  its  construction. 
It  is  true  he  might,  after  many  unsuc- 
cessful attempts  and  much  expenditure 
of  time,  discover  the  uses  of  the  imple- 
ments at  hand,  and  after  a  long  trial 
be  able  to  present  the  completed  work. 
More  unreasonable  is  the  exaction  made 


22 


of  the  untrained  student  that  she  shall 
comprehend  and  learn  long  and  difficult 
lessons  without  the  best  use  of  her  men- 
tal faculties.  This  is  often  done  at  the 
expense  of  health,  so  much  time  being 
necessary  to  compensate,  even  to  some 
small  degree,  for  lack  of  concentrated 
attention  that  none  remains  for  recre- 
ation and  rest. 

The  question  naturally  arises,  "What, 
then,  are  the  means  to  be  used  to  culti- 
vate the  habit  of  concentrating  the  at- 
tention ?"  In  other  words,  "  What  shall 
be  the  process  of  training  which  will 
secure  this  end  ?" 

It  is  the  purpose  of  this  book  to  an- 
swer this  question  so  far  as  it  has  been 
met,  in  my  own  experience  as  a  teach- 
'-N  er,  while  striving  to  assist  my  pupils 
to  acquire  this  important  educative 
force. 

The   answer  would   undoubtedly   be 

the  means  of  saving  the  student  a  vast 

A    amount  of  mental  drudgery  and  fatigue, 

and  of  securing  much  time  which  is  too 


23 


often  wasted  in  the  miscalled  study 
hours. 

It  now  becomes  necessary  to  say  a 
few  words  concerning  the  principles  of 
attention. 

Voluntary  attention,  we  find,  is  a  re- 
sult of  the  cultivation  of  spontaneous 
attention  along  certain  prescribed  lines. 
It  is  an  acquired  power  or  state  of  men- 
tal steadiness,  usually  attained  by  habit. 

In  a  durable  form  it  is  a  difficult  state 
to  sustain,  and  usually  extraneous  aid  is 
needed. 

It  has  been  found  that  the  motive 
necessary  for  the  production  of  volun- 
tary attention  is  best  induced  and  con- 
tinued by  the  use  of  certain  emotional 
states,  such  as  fear,  innate  curiosity, 
emulation,  and  desire  to  excel.  A  sys- 
tem which  recognizes  the  importance  of 
this  mental  training  as  a  thing  distinct 
from  methods  of  teaching,  and  as  a  nec- 
essary part  of  the  teacher's  work,  is  the 
subject  under  consideration. 

It  was  with  a  view  to  arousing  the 


24 


mental  activities,  keeping  the  mind  on 
the  alert,  and  holding  the  attention 
steadily,  that  I  formulated  certain  ex- 
ercises which  placed  the  mind  in  the 
same  mental  attitude  for  a  short  time 
each  day.  The  result  was  that  a  habit 
of  voluntary  attention  was  formed,  and 
thus  I  had  secured  to  a  considerable  de- 
gree the  end  I  had  so  assiduously  sought. 

The  process  of  development  which  I 
marked  out  for  my  own  use  for  quicken- 
ing the  mental  activities  was  as  follows : 

First,  to  quicken  the  perceptive  facul- 
ties; second,  to  cultivate  the  habit  of 
accuracy  in  seeing  and  hearing ;  and 
third,  to  discriminate  by  immediately 
observing  similarities,  differences,  and 
relations,  remembering  always  that  at- 
tention was  the  underlying  condition 
for  the  proper  development  of  these 
functions  of  the  mind. 

Quickness  of  perception  will  lead  to 
the  power  of  observation,  so  essential 
to  the  student  of  the  sciences  in  collect- 
ing, sorting,  arranging,  and  classifying. 


No.  2 — Exercise  for  rapidity  and  accuracy  in  sight- 
reading 


25 


This  faculty  of  perception,  when 
highly  developed,  will  lead  the  mind 
to  reach  conclusions  rapidly. 

Nathaniel  Bowditch  said  that  in 
studying  the  Mecanique  Celeste  he  be- 
came discouraged  by  the  frequent  re- 
currence of  the  word  "  obviously."  The 
perfectly  trained  mind  of  La  Place  had 
by  one  great  mental  leap,  the  result  of 
marvellously  trained  perceptive  powers, 
attained  the  inference  which  cost  Bow- 
ditch  long  hours  of  wearisome  labor  to 
reach. 

The  power  to  recognize  in  one  rapid 
glance  the  familiar  principle  and  the 
process  by  which  the  results  are  to  be 
obtained,  so  that  these  stand  out  to  the 
mind  "  obviously,"  as  a  basis  of  continu- 
ous work,  is,  I  believe,  to  be  secured  in 
a  very  helpful  degree  through  direct 
training,  the  distinct  end  of  which 
should  be  the  highest  development  of 
the  perceptive  faculty.  A  necessary 
consideration,  and  one  to  be  strongly 
emphasized  in  the  training  of  the  per- 


26 


ceptive  faculty,  is  that  of  insisting  upon 
a  habit  of  accuracy  in  seeing  and  hear- 
ing. 

The  usefulness  of  this  habit  is  being 
universally  recognized.  I  shall  confine 
myself  to  its  application  to  school-room 
work.  I  will  only  state,  in  passing,  that 
the  attainment  of  the  habit  of  quick 
perception  will  make  all  the  life  occu- 
pations easier  and  better ;  the  want  of 
which  is  sometimes  expressed  as  the  in- 
ability to  "  take  in  "  the  situation.  Fol- 
lowing the  training  to  quick  perception 
should  be  the  training  to  accurate  dis- 
crimination. This  is  more  complex  in 
its  nature,  involving,  as  it  does,  think- 
ing and  remembering  until  clear  recog- 
nition takes  place.  The  cultivation  of 
the  power  of  distinct  discrimination, 
leading  the  mind  to  notice  likeness- 
es and  differences  and  to  think,  accus- 
toms it  to  perceive  things  and  their 
relations  to  each  other  with  a  full 
recognition. 

Thus  these  forms  of  experience,  as 


perception,  attention,  discrimination,  re- 
membering, etc.,  while  they  depend  upon 
each  other  as  facts  of  psychology,  may 
be  made  of  inestimable  value  to  the 
pupil  when  developed,  each,  in  turn,  as 
a  means  to  an  end. 

As  I  have  said  before,  this  is  not  a 
psychological  treatise.  It  is  intended 
to  comprehend  no  more  than  the  prac- 
tical consideration  of  a  few  of  the 
foundation  facts  which  psychology 
studies,  and  which  are  most  essential 
in  the  cultivation  of  the  mind.  The 
word  "  faculties "  I  have  used  only  as 
some  of  those  special  modes  of  the 
mind's  activities  which,  although  com- 
plex, are  capable  of  particular  develop- 
ment by  means  of  mental  training. 


CHAPTER  II 
THE    SYSTEM    EXPLAINED 

INNATE  curiosity,  which,  as  Eibot  has 
said,  seems  to  be  the  appetite  of  intelli- 
gence, was  the  motive  to  which  I  first 
appealed  through  the  sense  of  sight. 
This  motive  suggested  the  use  of  the 
swinging  blackboard.  At  first  the  ex- 
periments were  tested,  not  upon  the  in- 
dividual mind,  but  upon  the  minds  of 
the  entire  school  acting  together  tow- 
ards one  end.  An  intensit}^  of  interest 
was  thus  secured  by  means  of  that 
wondrous  element  of  success,  the  con- 
tagion of  enthusiasm.  But  curiosity 
soon  grew  into  interested  attention. 
A  column  of  figures  consisting  of  units, 
tens,  and  hundreds  was  placed  upon  the 
reversed  side  of  the  blackboard,  which 


29 


was  quickly  revolved.   The  figures  were 
easily  recognized  in  their  order,  as : 


300 
29 


100 

When  the  ability  to  recognize  a  few 
numbers  at  a  single  glance  had  been 
attained,  a  longer  column,  as  shown 
in  cut  No.  1,  was  easily  mastered. 
When  the  habit  of  quick  perception 
had  been  in  a  measure  secured,  the 
same  means  were  used  to  form  a  habit 
equally  useful  but  more  difficult  to  ac- 
quire :  that  of  holding  the  mind  steady 
while  retaining  these  figures  in  their 
order.  Pupils  were  required,  after  a 
single  glance  at  the  figures,  to  repeat 
the  unit  figures  beginning  at  the  top, 
then  the  tens,  the  hundreds,  and  so  on. 
Individual  pupils  were  required  to  give 
these  as  stated  above,  and  to  repeat  the 
column  from  the  bottom  to  the  top. 


30 


A  still  more  difficult  exercise,  as  re- 
quiring a  firmer  grasp,  was  to  repeat 
the  contents  of  the  column  by  multi- 
plying, dividing,  or  extracting  the  square 
or  cube  root  of  each  separate  number. 
Thus  the  column 

230 
729 

11 

36 
40000 

16 

40 

was  shown  for  three  seconds  only ;  the 
pupils  were  then  asked  but  once  to 
multiply  the  first  number  by  two,  to 
extract  the  cube  root  of  the  second,  to 
square  the  third,  to  extract  the  square 
root  of  the  fourth,  to  divide  the  fifth 
by  two,  to  multiply  the  sixth  by  twenty- 
four,  and  to  divide  the  seventh  by  four, 
and  then  to  repeat  the  changed  column, 
which  they  did  as  follows : 


No.  3 — Exercise  for  accuracy  in  discriminating 


31 

460 
9 

121 
6 

20000 

384 

10 

Another  example  was  given,  as  follows : 

692 

18 

95 

225 

9000 

470 

6000 

25 

To  square  the  second  number,  sub- 
tract from  the  fourth  200,  multiply  the 
fifth  by  three,  and  extract  the  square 
root  of  the  last  number.  This  was  re- 
peated, as  follows : 

692 

324 

95 

25 

27000 

470 

6000 

5 


32 


Among  other  exercises  of  this  kind 
were  the  following  columns,  which  were 
repeated  after  a  single  glance  and  then 
erased : 

54  16  48  32 

100  800  1789  500 

1483  1702  1452  1620 

621  1815  1321  350 

1635  1300  11  1400 

476  600  751  290 

1000  24  560  6000 

27  13  1492  00 

10 

The  purpose  of  the  exercise  was  sole- 
ly to  arouse  an  eager  attention  which 
could  be  shared  by  each  individual  with- 
out regard  to  scholarship,  to  quicken 
the  activities  of  the  mind,  to  fix  the 
attention,  and  help  to  form  the  habit  of 
looking  at  things  accurately  and  of 
holding  them  in  the  mind. 

There  was  no  occasion  for  retain- 
ing the  figures  in  the  order  of  their 
arrangement,  nor  even  for  remember- 
ing them  at  all,  and  I  was  surprised 


33 


when,  after  some  days  had  passed,  I 
discovered  that  my  pupils  could  recall 
two  or  three  columns  of  figures  similar 
to  the  above  in  their  order  without 
hesitation  or  error;  an  experience  which 
proved  to  me  beyond  a  doubt,  if  any 
proof  were  needed,  that  the  mind  re- 
tains the  impressions  made  upon  it  in 
proportion  to  the  degree  of  attention 
given  at  the  time  the  impressions  are 
received. 

Although  I  had  placed  the  figures 
upon  the  board  merely  as  an  exercise 
in  attention,  my  pupils,  who  are  daily 
trained  to  habits  of  mental  associations, 
showed  me  that  nearly  all  of  the  num- 
bers I  had  written  had  conveyed  to 
their  minds,  in  a  single  glance,  one 
or  more  facts  of  history.  For  exam- 
ple: 

100  (B.C.)  Birth  of  Julius  Caesar. 
1483  Birth   of   Raphael   and   Martin   Luther ; 
death  of  the  little  princes  in  the  Tower. 
621  Mohammed's  entry  into  Medina. 
476  Downfall  of  the  Roman  Empire. 


1000  Visit  of  the  Northmen  to  America. 
800  Charlemagne  crowned  Pope. 
1702  Death  of  William  of  Orange.     Accession 

of  Queen  Anne. 
1815  Napoleon's  escape  from  Elba;  Waterloo; 

Wellington's  victory. 

1300  Pope  Boniface  VIII;  Dante  at  Rome. 
600  (B.C.)  Buddhism  introduced  into  India. 
1321  Death  of  Dante. 
751  Rome  founded. 

1492  Castile  and  Aragon  united ;  expulsion 
of  the  Moors ;  Columbus  discovers 
America. 

Thus  some  valuable  suggestions  were 
obtained  by  way  of  practice  in  quickly 
recalling  what  had  been  previously 
learned. 

Another  exercise  devised  for  the 
same  purpose  —  to  cultivate  habits  of 
quick  perception  and  concentration — 
was  to  place  a  number  of  figures  in  a 
horizontal  line,  as  seen  in  cut  No.  2  and 
also  No.  3. 

The  figures  were  repeated  in  their 
order  in  single  units,  then  in  tens  and 
hundreds,  and  from  the  right  to  the  left. 


35 


No.  3  was  repeated  thus :  9,  two  dots 
above;  6,  2,  5,  three  dots  below;  3,  8, 
minus-sign  above ;  4,  one  dot  below ;  7, 
2,  plus-sign  below ;  5,  three  dots  above ; 
9,  3,  7,  one  dot  below;  4,  0,  two  dots 
above ;  0,  1,  9,  one  dot  below  j  8,  plus- 
sign  above ;  0. 

A  useful  exercise  in  the  development 
of  quick  perception  and  careful  discrim- 
ination is  that  of  "  Unconscious  Count- 
ing," or  the  immediate  recognition  of 
the  number  of  objects  without  count- 
ing them.  There  are  presented  to  the 
eye,  for  example,  a  number  of  circles 
placed  upon  the  revolving  board,  as 
shown  in  cut  No.  4,  and  instead  of 
counting  one,  two,  three,  four,  five,  six, 
seven,  the  pupil  distinguishes  at  a 
glance  that  the  numerical  value  of  the 
group  is  seven.  The  relative  position 
of  the  circles  should  be  changed,  and 
the  practice  continued  until  the  group 
is  as  quickly  perceived  and  as  certain 
to  mean  seven  to  the  mind  as  a  single 
object  to  mean  one. 


36 


After  a  few  weeks  of  practice,  not 
exceeding  five  minutes  each  morning, 
my  pupils  were  able  to  recognize  in- 
stantly twenty  objects  without  counting, 
seldom  mistaking  the  group,  of  what- 
ever kind,  for  any  other  number. 

Sometimes  an  algebraic  formula,  or 
a  collection  of  letters  used  in  Roman 
notation,  some  unfamiliar  words,  or  a 
part  of  a  sentence  or  paragraph,  were 
shown  for  a  moment,  then  written  by 
the  pupils  precisely  as  they  had  seen 
them  during  a  single  revolution  of  the 
blackboard. 

It  may  be  easily  seen  that  exercises 
like  the  above,  practised  for  a  few  min- 
utes each  day,  would  lead  the  mind  to 
seize  quickly  upon  the  notes  or  charac- 
ters used  in  written  music.  That  these 
means  have  not  failed  of  their  end  has 
been  repeatedly  proved.  Three  or  four 
bars  of  music  have  been  written  on  the 
revolving  board,  then  turned  towards 
the  class  for  a  few  seconds,  when  the 
pupils  were  able  to  state  precisely  what 


o.  4 — Exercise  for  unconscious  counting 


was  written,  giving  the  tonality,  time, 
name,  and  length  of  each  note,  rest,  tie, 
etc. 

Testimony  to  the  value  of  mental 
training  for  the  study  of  music  is  thus 
given  by  the  instructors : 

MY  DEAR  Miss  AIKEN,  — It  gives  me  great 
pleasure  to  write  to  you  of  the  results  of  your 
mind-training  system  upon  the  piano-forte  pupils 
in  your  school  who  are  studying  the  Synthetic 
Method. 

The  quality  of  work  that  is  done  by  the  girls  is 
immeasurably  ahead  of  any  I  have  ever  had 
from  students  of  corresponding  age  outside  of 
your  school. 

There  is  nothing  in  piano-forte  training  that 
requires  closer  concentration  than  transposition. 
Last  Tuesday  I  gave  out  the  first  example  of  trans- 
position attempted  in  the  present  class,  and— 
without  previous  preparation— the  example,  which 
was  difficult,  was  immediately  played  in  two  other 
keys.  So  difficult  a  test  has  not  been  made  in  any 
other  class  under  my  care. 

The  examinations  by  Mr.  Albert  Ross  Parsons 
have  elicited  his  enthusiastic  commendation  of 
the  mind-training,  and  he  has  expressed  his  satis- 
faction with  the  intelligent,  quick  perception  of 
the  girls  who  require  but  one  telling  in  order  to 


38 


remember  what  he  desires  to  convey  in  his  teach- 
ing.       Believe  me  very  truly  yours, 

KATE  S.  CHITTENDEN. 
128  East  Sixteenth  Street,  Nov.  23,  1892. 

Prof.  Albert  Woeltge  writes : 

Quick  perception  is  the  basis  of  first-sight  read- 
ing, and  a  quick  perception  of  music  and  instan- 
taneous adaptation  of  fingering  for  its  execution 
is  the  basis  of  first- sight  playing. 

The  mental  process  in  either  is  essentially  the 
same  as  taught  by  Miss  Aiken  in  her  principle  of 
mind-training:  an  instantaneous  analyzation  of 
the  component  parts  of  a  musical  composition. 

Having  witnessed  several  astonishing  illustra- 
tions of  Miss  Aiken's  mind-training,  and  wishing 
to  test  the  principle  as  applicable  to  the  reading 
of  music,  I  wrote  on  a  blackboard,  out  of  sight 
of  the  class,  and  without  previous  intimation,  the 
following  musical  phrase,  which,  after  being  ex- 
posed to  the  view  of  the  pupils  for  the  short 
space  of  time  of  three  seconds,  was  repeated  by 
them  from  memory  correctly,  naming  note  for 
note  in  the  treble  and  the  bass,  together  with  their 
value  and  place  in  the  measure,  the  key,  and  time: 


=bi= 


39 


By  specially  devised  exercises  this  faculty  may 
be  further  developed,  and  become  of  practical 
use  for  playing  at  first  sight,  and  in  committing 
music  rapidly  to  memory,  saving  much  time 
spent  in  practising. 

The  degree  of  attention,  as  we  have  seen,  leads 
the  mind  to  observe  distinctions  quickly  and  ac- 
curately. 

ALBERT  WOELTGE. 

It  is  desirable  to  vary  the  exercises, 
even  when  the  end  to  be  attained  is  the 
same.  The  ability  to  discriminate  with 
accuracy  will  be  gained  by  frequent 
practice  in  the  blackboard  exercises 
which  have  been  already  given,  particu- 
larly the  one  designated  "  Unconscious 
Counting."  It  has  been  found,  how- 
ever, an  interesting  and  valuable  prac- 
tice to  measure  upon  the  board  various 
lengths,  and,  having  fixed  in  the  mind  a 
standard  of  comparison,  to  be  able  to 
distinguish  the  exact  length  of  the  lines 
— 2  inches  from  2£,  5  inches  from  5J, 
9  inches  from  10,  2  feet  from  2  feet  1 
inch,  2  feet  6  inches  from  2  feet  7  inch- 
es, etc.  These  lines  of  measurement 


40 


have  been  sometimes  placed  together 
upon  the  board,  and  often  in  single 
lines. 

Strict  attention  will  fix  the  various 
lengths  in  the  mind,  and  memory  will 
enable  the  student  to  recall  the  stand- 
ard by  which  he  may  draw  with  exact- 
ness the  desired  length. 

To  cultivate  a  memory  of  places  and 
the  relations  of  objects  to  each  other  in 
space,  horizontal  and  perpendicular  lines 
were  drawn,  as  seen  in  cut  No.  5. 

The  pupils  were  occasionally  required 
to  prepare  their  lines  for  themselves, 
and  when  the  board,  marked  off  in 
spaces  filled  like  the  above,  had  been 
seen  for  a  few  seconds  only,  to  fill  their 
own  spaces  from  memory  ;  or  they  were 
asked  to  place  the  proper  figure  or  char- 
acter, for  example,  on  the  third  line, 
fourth  space,  or  on  the  fifth  line,  second 
space,  and  so  on,  until  all  the  required 
spaces  were  filled.  They  were  also 
asked  to  state  the  relations  of  the  con- 
tents of  one  space  to  that  of  others. 


41 


This  work  it  would  have  been  impos- 
sible for  a  class  to  do  unless  the  mind 
had  been  trained  to  habits  of  concentra- 
tion. 

By  means  of  exercises  like  these  the 
scholar's  mind  is  energized  in  the  at- 
tempt to  see  things  precisely  as  they 
are,  and  is  also  assisted  in  acquiring  a 
habit  of  careful  observation,  so  useful 
in  every  branch  of  study.  These  hab- 
its of  mind  are  a  thousand  times  to  be 
preferred  to  the  passivity  and  careless- 
ness of  the  untrained  scholar  who  is 
content  with  a  superficial  glance,  and 
rests  satisfied  if  the  result  of  the  obser- 
vations is  almost  correct. 

The  study  of  drawing  will  be  greatly 
facilitated  when  the  habit  of  quick  and 
accurate  seeing  has  .been  acquired  to 
any  considerable  degree.  A  model  is 
presented  for  a  few  moments  of  study, 
and  then  withdrawn.  It  is  required  to 
reproduce  it  from  memory.  This  is  also 
a  valuable  practice,  as  preparing  the 
mind  for  independent  work.  It  has 


42 


been  generally  observed  by  the  masters 
of  those  pupils  who  are  practised  in 
these  methods  of  mind  -  training  that 
there  exists  a  readiness  to  perceive 
forms  and  their  relations,  and  a  steadi- 
ness of  attention,  which  enables  them 
to  do  excellent  work  in  drawing,  de- 
signing, moulding,  etc.,  with  ease  and 
rapidity. 

Mr.  Jacobs,  one  of  the  authors  of  the 
Graphic  System  of  drawing,  has  charge 
of  the  art  classes  in  the  school.  He 
says : 

Many  of  the  methods  used  by  Miss  Aiken  I 
have  found  of  great  value  in  the  work  of  draw- 
ing. For  the  purpose  of  training  the  eye  and 
hand,  a  great  variety  of  exercises  has  been 
given. 

Lessons  from  objects  in  outline,  and  in  light 
and  shade,  and  cast  drawing,  have  been  supple- 
mented by  work  from  the  revolving  blackboard, 
viz.,  memory  drawing  of  objects  shown  the  week 
before,  sketches  from  the  imagination,  glance 
work  from  objects  shown  and  quickly  withdrawn, 
and  rapid  work  from  groups  of  objects.  The 
practical  results  obtained  are  a  quickness  of  per- 
ception, accurate  statements  of  truth  of  form 


No.  5 — Exercise  for  accuracy  in   recalling  objects  in 
their  places,  and  in  their  relation  to  other  objects 


43 


and  values,  given  in  a  direct  manner,  all  pupils 
showing  a  real  interest  and  pleasure  in  their 
work. 

Cut  No.  6  shows  examples  of  the  simpler  ex- 
ercises given.  After  one  revolution  of  the  board 
pupils  made  memory  sketches.  A  few  of  the  re- 
sults are  shown  in  cut  No.  7.  In  cut  No.  8  more 
elaborate  tile  patterns  are  shown,  and  cut  No.  9  • 
gives  examples  of  glance  work  from  objects 
shown  but  an  instant,  and  two  minutes  only  al- 
lowed for  each  drawing. 

A  few  sketches  from  the  figure,  made  in  a 
more  advanced  class,  are  shown  in  cut  No.  10.  A 
teacher  in  composition  and  rhetoric  says:  '  I  have 
been  surprised  at  the  facility  of  hand  shown  by 
all  the  pupils,  and  above  this  I  place  their  appre- 
ciation of  the  value  of  care  in  all  work  required 
of  them.  This  I  trace  largely  to  their  lessons  in  */ 
time  sketches  and  glance  work.' 

HOB  ART  B.  JACOBS. 

A  blackboard  practice  in  synonyms 
has  been  found  interesting  and  useful. 
A  column  of  words  not  exceeding  ten 
was  written  and  shown  for  a  few  seconds. 
The  class  was  asked  to  write  the  syn- 
onyms in  the  same  order  in  which  the 
words  had  been  written : 


44 

Example  Synonyms 


Intend 

expect 

mean  to 

Contain 

include 

holds 

Time 

one  day 

eternity 

Soon 

immediately 

quick 

Portrait 

picture 

likeness 

Clock 

timepiece 

timepiece 

Landscape 

scene 

scene 

Fortune 

wealth 

luck 

Charity 

kindness 

almsgiving 

Master 

instructor 

captain 

Similar  columns  of  words  and  their 
synonyms  have  been  frequently  written, 
varying  in  number  from  six  to  ten. 

An  independent  way  of  fixing  the  at- 
tention, and  one  which  each  pupil  may 
practise  alone,  and  find  excellent  for  dis- 
cipline and  instruction,  has  been  prac- 
tised in  the  following  manner:  The 
pupils  were  asked,  for  example,  to  turn 
to  a  certain  page  of  a  book,  to  look  at 
the  first  two  lines,  or  more,  for  a  single 
moment,  then  to  close  the  book  and  to 
write  the  lines,  every  word,  syllable, 
and  letter  in  its  place,  the  capitals,  if 
any,  and  the  punctuation-marks.  Whole 


45 


paragraphs  may  thus  be  reproduced  by 
the  pupils  after  a  single  reading.  They 
feel  that  they  have  no  time  to  gaze  about 
them;  they  are  urged  by  the  impera- 
tiveness of  the  one  reading,  and  their 
attention  thus  stimulated,  they  do  the 
work,  gain  the  experience  of  writing 
the  lines  perfectly,  and,  better  still, 
form  the  habit  of  observing  while  read- 
ing— the  true  way,  in  my  opinion,  to 
learn  to  spell,  to  punctuate,  and  even 
to  construct  sentences.  In  this  will  be 
found  a  vast  economy  of  time  compared 
to  the  method  of  committing  to  mem- 
ory rules  which  the  pupil  may  be  able 
to  recite,  but  seldom  to  apply.  The 
teacher  will  be  able  to  make  explana- 
tions, and  give  reasons  for  technical 
peculiarities  when  her  pupils  have  ob- 
served for  themselves  the  facts,  as  they 
should  be  led  to  do.  Thus  the  way  is 
made  ready  for  original,  independent, 
and  self -instructing  wrork. 


CHAPTER  III 

ATTENTION    AND   MEMORY 

IN  order  to  cultivate  the  art  of  listen- 
ing— a  gift  often  more  rare  than  fluent 
speech  —  some  exercises  were  formu- 
lated, and  practised  from  ten  to  fifteen 
minutes  each  day,  with  no  further  end 
in  view  than  that  of  accustoming  the 
mind  to  concentrate  itself  upon  the 
subject,  in  listening  to  the  reading  of  a 
book,  or  to  a  lecture,  or  to  oral  instruc- 
tion. 

The  process  by  means  of  which  this 
has  been  accomplished  will  be  seen  in 
the  use  of  a  few  examples.  To  a  class 
of  beginners  in  the  mind-training  exer- 
cise I  read  once  only,  after  explaining 
the  meaning  of  subject,  predicate,  and 
object,  the  following  extract  from  "  A 


47 


Child's  Dream  of  a  Star,"  by  Charles 
Dickens : 

"There  was  once  a  child,  and  he 
strolled  about  a  good  deal,  and  thought 
of  a  number  of  things.  He  had  a  sister, 
who  was  a  child  too,  and  his  constant 
companion.  They  wondered  at  the 
beauty  of  the  flowers ;  they  wondered  at 
the  height  and  blueness  of  the  sky ;  they 
wondered  at  the  depth  of  the  water; 
they  wondered  at  the  goodness  and 
power  of  God,  who  made  them  lovely." 

The  scholars  were  ignorant  of  any 
text-book  definitions  of  subject,  predi- 
cate, object,  and  subordinate  and  de- 
pendent words  and  clauses,  but  they 
were  shown  the  principal  parts  of  a 
sentence,  as  the  words  containing  the 
main  idea,  and  their  relation  to  each 
other  and  to  the  remaining  words  of 
the  sentence.  When  this  was  made 
clear  by  illustration,  the  class  was  asked 
to  repeat  the  important  words  in  the 
first  two  sentences,  and  then  the  whole 
paragraph,  and  lastly  to  repeat  the  en- 


48 


tire  selection,  which  they  did  with 
great  delight,  and  with  few  mistakes, 
and  these  they  corrected  after  a  short 
pause,  for  in  no  case  were  they  prompt- 
ed. They  had  substituted  the  word 
"  color,"  for  "  blueness,"  and  when  told 
there  was  an  inaccuracy,  recalled  the 
word  without  assistance. 

Little  by  little  they  acquired  a  power 
of  seizing  at  once  upon  the  principal 
parts  of  a  sentence,  viz.,  the  subject  and 
predicate,  and  to  do  this  in  the  order 
of  their  arrangement.  To  hold  these 
firmly  in  the  mind,  grouping  around 
each  its  dependent  words,  it  was  neces- 
sary that  unswerving  attention  should 
be  given  to  the  once-heard  reading.  Be- 
ginners were  frequently  asked  to  state 
the  subjects  and  predicates  contained 
in  the  paragraph  before  repeating  the 
whole. 

As  the  pupils'  power  of  continuous  at- 
tention increased  with  practice,  a  greater 
number  of  lines  of  prose  and  poetry  was 
read  for  their  recalling,  until  they  could 


o.  6 — Glance-work  from  revolving  blackboard 


49 


repeat  from  twenty  to  thirty  lines,  and 
even  more,  of  that  which  they  had  heard 
read  but  once. 

As  invariably  the  best  English  was 
selected  for  these  exercises,  they  soon 
learned  unconsciously  the  principles  of 
rhetoric  in  the  proper  structure  and 
form  of  sentences,  as  well  as  the  use 
of  synonyms.  In  order  to  express  the 
meaning  conveyed  to  the  mind  in  the 
text,  they  frequently  made  use  of  an- 
other word  than  that  which  they  had 
heard — a  practice  to  be  greatly  encour- 
aged, except  as  an  exercise  for  the  sole 
purpose  of  recalling  the  precise  word, 
when  it  should  at  once  be  exchanged. 

The  following,  taken  from  u  Tom 
Brown  at  Kugby,"  was  repeated  by 
individual  scholars,  and  also  by  the 
class,  after  one  reading,  at  the  end  of 
seven  minutes;  and  when  some  weeks 
had  passed,  the  entire  selection  was  im- 
mediately and  correctly  recalled.  The 
words  written  below  in  italics  were 
first  repeated,  then  the  entire  selection  : 


50 


"  Tom  and  his  father  had  alighted  at 
the  Peacock  Inn,  London,  at  about 
seven  in  the  evening,  and  having  heard 
with  unfeigned  joy  the  paternal  order 
for  supper  and  seen  his  father  seated 
cosily  by  the  bright  fire  in  the  coffee- 
room  with  the  paper  in  his  hand,  Tom 
had  run  out  to  see  about  him,  had 
wondered  at  all  the  vehicles  passing  and 
repassing,  and  had  fraternized  with  the 
boots  and  ostler,  from  whom  he  ascer- 
tained that  the  Tally-ho  coach  was  a 
tip-top  goer,  ten  miles  an  hour,  includ- 
ing stoppages,  and  so  punctual  that  all 
the  roads  set  their  clocks  by  her. 

"  Then,  being  summoned  to  supper,  he 
had  regaled  himself  on  beefsteak  and 
oyster-sauce  ;  had  at  first  attended  to  the 
excellent  advice  his  father  gave  him; 
and  then  began  nodding,  from  the  united 
effects  of  the  supper,  the  fire,  and  the 
lecture ;  till  the  Squire,  observing  Tom's 
state,  and  remember  ing  that  it  was  nearly 
nine  o'clock  and  that  the  Tally-ho  left 
at  three,  sent  the  little  fellow  to  bed 


61 


with  a  shake  of  the  hand  and  a  few 
parting  words." 

I  would  here  say,  in  explanation  of 
the  above,  that  I  have  given  to  the  word 
predicate  a  meaning  slightly  broader 
than  that  generally  accepted,  and  have 
included  participles  under  this  head,  as 
being  "  key  words  "  to  the  meaning  of 
the  sentence,  and  therefore  important  in 
our  plan  of  memorizing. 

The  following  poems  were  learned  in 
seven  minutes  by  first  repeating  the  sub- 
jects and  predicates  as  italicized  : 

HYMN  TO  THE  NIGHT 

1  heard  the  trailing  garments  of  the  Night 

Sweep  through  her  marble  halls  ! 
/  saw  her  sable  skirts  all  fringed  with  light 

From  the  celestial  walls  ! 

I  felt  her  presence,  by  its  spell  of  might, 

Stoop  o'er  me  from  above ; 
The  calm,  majestic  presence  of  the  Night 

As  of  the  one  I  love. 

/  heard  the  sounds  of  sorrow  and  delight, 
The  manifold,  soft  chimes, 


52 


That  fill  the  haunted  chambers  of  the  Night, 
Like  some  old  poet's  rhymes. 

From  the  cool  cisterns  of  the  midnight  air 

My  spirit  drank  repose  ; 
Tfie  fountain  of  perpetual  peace  flows  there — 

From  those  deep  cisterns  flows. 

O  holy  Night !  from  thee  /  learn  to  bear 

What  man  has  borne  before  ! 
Thou  latfst  thy  finger  on  the  lips  of  Care, 

And  tJiey  complain  no  more. 

Peace  !  Peace  !  Orestes-like  /  breathe  this  prayer 
Descend  with  broad-winged  flight, 

The  welcome,  the  thrice- prayed- for,  the  most  fair 
The  best-beloved  Night! 

H.  W.  LONGFELLOW. 

BUGLE  SONG 

The  splendor  falls  on  castle  walls 

And  snowy  summits  old  in  story; 
The  long  light  shakes  across  the  lakes, 

And  the  wild  cataract  leaps  in  glory. 
Blow,  bugle,  blow,  set  the  wild  echoes  flying, 
Blow,  bugle;  answer,  echoes,  dying,  dying,  dying. 

0  hark !   0  hear !  how  thin  and  clear, 
And  thinner,  clearer,  further  going ; 

O  sweet  and  far,  from  cliff  and  scar, 
The  horns  of  Elfland  faintly  blowing! 


53 


Blow,  let  us  hear  the  purple  glens 

Slow,  bugle  ;  answer,  echoes,  dying,  dying,  dying. 

O  love,  they  die  in  yon  rich  sky, 

They  faint  on  hill  or  field  or  river  : 
Our  echoes  roll  from  soul  to  soul 
And  grow  forever  and  forever. 
Blow,  bugle,  blow,  set  the  wild  echoes  flying, 
And  answer,  echoes,  answer,  dying,  dying,  dying. 

ALFRED  TENNYSON. 


Af* or  the  pupils  had  attained  a  cer- 
tain proficiency  in  the  art  of  attentive 
listening,  they  were  required  to  solve 
problems  of  considerable  length  with- 
out the  aid  of  pencil  and  paper. 

Thus  the  teacher  would  give  a  prob- 
lem involving  perhaps  twenty  mental 
operations,  the  pupils  following  each 
word  closely,  and  at  the  end  giving  the 
correct  answer. 

The  scholars  were  drilled  in  numer- 
ation, Arabic  and  Koman  notation,  ad- 
dition, subtraction,  multiplication,  di- 
vision, fractions,  denominate  numbers, 
foreign  money,  mensuration,  percentage, 


54 


interest,  squares,  cubes,  roots,  and  short 
methods  of  multiplication.  Very  good 
work  could  be  done  with  ten  minutes' 
practice  each  day. 

The  following  are  examples  of  the 
problems  given : 

1.  Addition.— (a)  Add  IV.,  XII.,  LX.,  XC., 
CD.,  MM.     (b)  Cover  the  board  with  columns  of 
figures  and  add  in  every  possible  way,  taking  all 
the  figures  as  units,  or  giving  them  their  true 
value. 

2.  Subtraction.  —  Subtract  any  number    from 
1000,  as  follows  : 

Use  1000  as  the  minuend,  498  as  the  subtrahend ;  then 
use  the  first  subtrahend  as  the  second  minuend,  and  the 
first  remainder  as  the  second  subtrahend,  and  so  on.  II 
correct,  the  eighth  line  will  always  be  like  the  seventeenth. 

1000 
498 
502 
996 
506 
490 
016 
474 
542 
932 
610 


A.      N 


•\  IX 


No.  7 — Eight  examples  from  second  figure  in  No.  6 


56 


034 
254 
780 
474 

3.  Example  for  quick  work  in  multiplication 
and  division  : 

498673x2 

997346x3 

2992038x4 

11968152x5 

59840760x6 

359044560x7 

2513311920x8 

20106495360x9 

180958458240-7-2 

90479229120^-3 

301597430404-4 

7539935760-4-5 

15079871524-6 

2513311924-7 

35904456-4-8 

44880574-9 

498673 


4.  Example  in  multiplication  for  drill  in  add- 
ing large  numbers,  and  in  concentrated  atten- 
tion, partial  products  added  mentally,  and  work 


56 


proved  by  casting  out  the  9's.     Order  of  work  : 
7x4;  7x6+5x4;  7x9+5x6  +  8x4;  etc. 

87,964  ' 
39,857 


3,505,981,148 
5.  Fractions. — 

*-^^—  =  4& 


6.  Coins. — Value  of  a  French  franc  ?  a  German 
mark  ?  an  Italian  lira  ?  a  Russian  kopeck  ?  a  Jap- 
anese yen  ?  etc. 

7.  Mensuration  and  Percentage. — (a)  Examples 
in  carpeting  rooms,  reckoning  by  short  methods, 
etc.     (b)  £  of  anything  is  what  per  cent.?  £?  £? 

**'*« 

8.  Examples   in   multiplying  numbers  whose 
units  added  make  ten,  and  whose  tens  are  alike, 
or  vice  versa  :  (a)  Multiply  the  tens  by  the  next 
higher  number,  and  multiply  the  units  together  : 
46x44=2024.     (b)  Multiply   the  tens  together, 
add  the  units'  figure,  and  multiply  the  units  to- 
gether:  87x27=2349. 

9.  Squares. — (a)  Square  45  by  rule  just  given. 
(b)  Square  84  by  binomial   formula,     (c)  Square 
99,999,999.     Ans.  9,999,999,800,000,001. 

10.  Miscellaneous  Example. — 9  times  8,  multiply 
by  32,  subtract  4,  add  200,  square  root,  divide  by 


57 


5,  subtract  J,  square  it,  multiply  by  4,  square 
root,  multiply  by  11,  subtract  9,  multiply  by  25, 
add  1400,  multiply  by  10,  cube  root,  add  8,  di- 
vide by  4,  cube  it,  multiply  by  2.  Give  answer, 
3456,  in  Roman  letters. 

SPELLING 

To  make  the  art  of  spelling  correctly 
easier  of  attainment,  and  to  invest  the 
tedious  task  of  learning  to  spell  with 
an  interest  akin  to  the  enjoyment  of 
the  old-fashioned  "  spelling-match,"  was, 
I  thought,  a  problem  worthy  an  attempt 
at  solution.  It  was  not  until  after  con- 
siderable progress  had  been  made  in 
concentrating  attention  and  in  improv- 
ing the  memory  that  the  following  plan 
for  an  agreeable  spelling-lesson  was  de- 
vised. It  will  be  seen  that  the  device 
is  in  the  line  of  our  mental  train- 
ing. 

I  had  observed  that  by  far  the  most 
of  the  failures  in  spelling  found  in  the 
English  compositions  and  essays  of  my 
girls,  as  well  as  in  their  synopses  of 


58 


lectures,  written  reviews  of  lessons,  and 
in  their  letters,  were  made  in  the  strug- 
gle with  the  double  letter.  The  plan 
was  to  learn  if  possible  the  words 
in  common  use  which  contain  double 
letters,  and  when  these  had  grown  fa- 
miliar to  the  ear  there  would  be  no 
need  to  burden  the  mind  in  trying  to 
remember  the  words  which  do  not.  The 
first  experiment  was  made  upon  a  spell- 
ing-class containing  thirty-six  scholars, 
the  success  of  which  depended,  as  do  all 
our  results  in  learning,  upon  the  power 
of  attention.  Each  pupil  in  turn  was 
required  to  pronounce  and  spell  a  word 
which  doubled,  for  example,  the  letter 
c.  When  this  had  been  done  by  every 
member  of  the  class,  each  pupil  wrote 
as  many  of  the  words  which  she  had 
just  heard  as  she  could  recall.  Here, 
then,  was  an  opportunity  to  test  the  at- 
tention given  and  the  power  of  recalling 
with  accuracy. 

After   the  words  had  been  written 
from  memory,  for  there  had  been  no 


59 


dictation  or  giving  out  of  words,  the 
c's  were  again  called  for,  and  the  words 
again  went  round  the  class  until  those 
containing  double  c's  seemed  nearly 
exhausted.  The  scholar  who  had  then 
written  the  largest  number  of  words 
pronounced  and  spelled  her  entire  list, 
from  which  her  classmates  could  draw 
to  add  to  their  own  lists.  Of  this  letter 
the  highest  number  of  words  written 
thus  from  memory  was  177. 

The  words  were  repeated  until  they 
became  familiar  and  the  meaning  of  the 
unfamiliar  words  was  given.  Fifteen 
minutes  every  day  was  appropriated  to 
this  exercise,  and  the  class  had  reached 
after  six  months  the  lesson  of  doubling 
the  letter  s;  the  average  number  of 
words  thus  learned  and  written  was 
2055,  and  the  highest  number  was 
4008. 

Spelling  by  dictation  in  the  ordinary 
way  is  also  given,  and  no  word  is 
repeated  by  the  teacher.  And  here  it 
must  be  remembered  that  the  mind  is 


60 


not  mentally  assisted  by  being  prompted. 
On  the  contrary,  it  becomes  dependent 
and  less  active ;  there  is  not  the  stim- 
ulus to  the  attention  when  repetition  is 
expected. 


CHAPTER  IV 

TO     TEACH  EKS 

MORE  than  forty  years  spent  in  ear- 
nest work  in  the  attempt  at  teaching, 
and  the  varied  experience  gained  in 
contact  with  the  minds  of  more  than 
two  thousand  scholars,  together  with  the 
stimulus  of  an  unfailing  enthusiasm  in 
my  work,  impressed  upon  me  the  fact 
that  the  highest  success  in  teaching  de- 
pends upon  the  power  of  the  teacher  to 
command  and  hold  the  attention  of  her 
pupils.  Here  it  may  be  said  all  do  not 
possess  the  power  of  commanding  atten- 
tion. This  is  true,  alas !  of  teachers  as 
of  preachers,  and  is  a  vital  want  which 
neither  learning  nor  piety  can  supply  to 
the  wandering  mind  of  the  languid  lis- 
tener. 


62 


It  should  be  the  aim  of  every  teacher 
to  get  into  close  contact  with  the  pupil's 
mind,  and  daily,  for  a  short  time,  at 
least,  to  induce  and  direct  its  activity 
when  it  is  free  from  the  worry  and  ex- 
citement of  learning  and  reciting  a  les- 
son ;  and  especially  should  the  teacher 
endeavor  to  shorten  the  wearisome  and 
unprofitable  hours  spent  over  the  school- 
books. 

Can  you  not  afford,  therefore,  to  set 
apart  twenty  minutes  every  morning  at 
the  opening  of  school,  when  there  shall 
be  no  attempt  at  learning,  as  such,  only 
an  effort  to  arouse  and  strengthen  the 
mental  faculties  by  daily  exercise  in  the 
same  direction,  until  the  full  use  of 
them  becomes  a  mental  habit,  which 
may  be  profitably  applied  in  the  ac- 
quiring of  knowledge,  whether  that 
knowledge  be  of  the  mind's  own  activi- 
ties or  of  things  external  to  itself  ? 

In  setting  aside  these  moments  for 
mental  training  you  will  brighten  and 
sharpen  the  instruments  that  are  to  be 


63 


used  by  your  pupils  in  the  day's  study 
or  work.  A  boy  will  whittle  his  stick 
so  much  better  and  easier  with  a  sharp 
knife  than  with  a  dull  one,  and  enjoy  it 
so  much  more  that  he  will  not  begrudge 
the  time  spent  at  the  grindstone. 

Can  you  not  see  how  much  time  and 
labor  is  saved  to  the  child  who  with 
sharpened  faculties  sits  down  to  the 
task  of  preparing,  for  example,  a  lesson 
in  spelling,  the  use  of  capitals,  punctua- 
tion, etc.,  as  well  as  to  the  student  in  his 
pursuit  of  the  higher  mathematics,  who 
is  enabled  by  his  habits  of  alertness  and 
concentration  to  seize  quickly  the  condi- 
tions of  the  problems,  to  hold  them  stead- 
ily in  his  grasp,  and  by  means  of  his  well- 
trained  memory  to  bring  to  the  solution 
his  previous  experience  in  similar  work  ? 

In  selecting  material  for  use  in  the 
daily  training,  reference  should  be  had 
always  to  the  age  and  experience  of  the 
scholars,  and  care  taken  to  choose  only 
such  passages  as  are  within  the  range 
of  their  understanding. 


The  teacher  who  has  charge  of  the 
earlier  years  of  the  child's  school  life 
should  keep  the  idea  of  the  necessity  of 
attention  constantly  in  her  mind  in  all 
her  work.  Accustom  the  child  to  once 
hearing  the  word.  If,  for  example,  he 
is  given  the  words  cat,  dog,  and  boy,  let 
him  write  the  words  in  the  order  in  which 
they  were  given  after  being  repeated  but 
once.  Or  let  him  be  given  figures,  as 
4, 7,  3, 9,  and  the  same  process  followed. 

For  the  maturer  minds  there  may  be 
made  selections  from  the  best  English 
authors,  vocabularies  of  French  and 
German  words,  sometimes  the  table  of 
contents  of  a  book  about  to  be  read  or 
studied,  or  the  characteristics  of  a  cer- 
tain century  as  a  synopsis  of  previous 
study,  or  the  classifications  of  some 
branch  of  natural  science ;  making  use 
of  natural  associations  whenever  they 
are  seen  to  exist. 

Nothing  should  be  required  of  the 
attention  but  that  which  the  mind  is 
prepared  to  receive. 


No.  9 — Glauce-work  from  objects 


65 


In  considering  the  practicability  of 
this  method  of  preparing  the  mind  for 
study,  I  would  ask  the  teachers  to  re- 
member that  the  actual  mind -train- 
ing,  in  the  use  of  the  given  exercises, 
occupies  but  twenty  minutes  at  the 
opening  of  school  each  morning,  and 
must  be  viewed  only  as  a  means  to  an 
end,  and  not  as  constituting  the  entire 
work  of  the  school.  As  well  may  the 
clergyman,  book  -  keeper,  seamstress,  or 
any  person  of  sedentary  habits  be  con- 
sidered as  beating  the  air  with  dumb- 
bells all  day  long  because  of  the  use 
of  them  for  a  few  moments  before 
entering  upon  their  quiet  avocations, 
when,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  well- 
directed  exercise  is  simply  imparting 
strength  and  vigor  throughout  the  day. 

Although  this  system  of  mind-train- 
ing, as  a  distinct  operation  in  school 
work,  is  still  incomplete,  and  many  of 
its  possibilities  are  yet  untried,  it  is  a 
fact  that  some  of  the  evils  referred  to 
in  the  beginning  of  this  book  have  been 


66 


overcome,  notably  these:  study  hours 
have  been  made  shorter,  and  the  heavy 
tax  upon  mind  and  body  has  been  re- 
lieved, while  the  same  course  of  study 
has  been  pursued  with  broader  compre- 
hension and  greater  enjoyment. 

One  of  the  most  gratifying  results  is 
that  it  has  aroused  the  dull,  slow-mov- 
ing minds  to  a  degree  of  activity  which 
has  become  a  new  and  delightful  ex- 
perience to  the  possessors. 

Again,  the  use  of  the  mental  train- 
ing has  been  seen  in  the  ability  to  recall 
with  accuracy  after  many  months  and 
often  years  have  passed  that  which  the 
pupils  have  read  or  heard  of  poetry  or 
prose,  facts  of  history,  literature,  art, 
etc.  In  a  considerable  degree  the  power 
has  been  acquired  of  shutting  out  from 
the  mind  extraneous  and  irrelevant  sub- 
jects while  pursuing  their  studies,  as  in 
the  working  of  long  and  difficult  ex- 
amples in  mental  arithmetic,  problems  in 
algebra,  geometry,  natural  philosophy, 
astronomy,  etc. 


67 


This  power  of  concentration  has  been 
sought  for,  not  with  the  idea  of  making 
mere  memorizers,  but  in  order  that  they 
may  be  able  to  recall  promptly  what  they 
have  gathered  from  the  great  realm  of 
facts  and  principles,  so  as  to  hold  it  in 
the  mind  as  a  basis  of  reasoning,  and  ulti- 
mately for  the  purpose  of  possessing  well- 
disciplined  and  self -controlling  minds. 

It  may  be  said  that  the  process  of 
educating  the  faculties  as  a  means  to 
the  teacher's  work  demands  great  labor 
and  strength  on  the  part  of  the  teacher. 
It  is  true.  But  it  is  also  true  that  the 
teacher  who  teaches  with  heart  as  well 
as  brain  will  experience  a  perpetual  joy 
and  satisfaction  which  she  who  only 
asks  questions  from  a  book  and  "  hears 
lessons"  knows  not  of.  Unless  the 
teacher  is  able  by  her  personal  power 
and  the  love  she  has  for  her  work  to 
inspire  her  pupils  with  the  desire  for 
knowledge  and  an  enthusiasm  in  the 
search  for  it,  her  teaching  is  of  little 
value.  Said  the  wise  philosopher  and 


68 


great  school-master,  Plato :  "  Give  me 
rather  the  desire  after  knowledge  than 
the  gift  of  knowledge." 

The  teacher  who  would  make  the 
training  of  her  pupils'  minds  and  hearts 
the  prime  factor  in  her  work  must  be 
possessed  of  a  sincere  love  for  it.  She 
must  even  be  an  enthusiast  in  her  pro- 
fession, and  her  whole  mind  and  soul  and 
spirit  must  be  absorbed  in  the  develop- 
ment of  the  highest  possibilities  in  the 
minds  and  characters  of  her  scholars 
while  they  are  under  her  charge. 

In  the  employment  of  methods  as 
means  to  an  end  she  will  not  find  her 
task  so  easy  as  in  that  of  a  hearing  reci- 
tations," for  the  activity  awakened  by 
the  morning  exercise  must  be  sustained 
to  a  good  degree  by  her  own  personal 
power  and  unfailing  ability  to  hold  the 
attention  of  her  classes  throughout  the 
day. 

It  is  true  that  the  teacher  is  aided 
by  the  interest  which  attaches  to  the 
subject,  and  by  the  intelligence  and 


69 


taste  of  her  scholars ;  but  her  aptitude 
in  making  the  mentality  of  her  pupils 
such  as  to  serve  as  the  means  of  ac- 
quiring further  knowledge  will  be  her 
highest  work. 

I  would  not  be  understood  as  want- 
ing in  a  just  estimate  of  the  faithful- 
ness and  devotion  of  teachers  as  a  class  ; 
I  believe  that  in  no  profession  is  so 
much  wearying  and  wearing  labor  done 
with  so  little  appreciation  and  so  nig- 
gardly remuneration  as  in  the  vocation 
of  the  teacher.  From  out  my  more  than 
forty  years'  experience  in  the  belated  art 
Of  teaching  I  would  ask  every  teacher 
to  adopt  some  direct  method  of  training 
her  scholars'  minds,  as  a  means  to  less 
laborious  and  more  profitable  teaching. 

My  heart  is  full  of  loving  interest 
and  kindly  sympathy  for  the  school 
girls  and  boys  everywhere  who  are 
spending  their  young  lives  in  the  mo- 
notonous drudgery  of  studying  to  re- 
cite before  they  have  learned  to  study. 
Little  reference  has  their  education  to 


70 


their  future  needs  and  successes  in  life 
if  void  of  right  mental  habits.  A  wise 
historian  has  written  as  follows  of  the 
men  who  framed  our  Constitution  : 
"  At  the  time  of  the  Revolution,  when 
the  several  States  framed  new  govern- 
ments, they  simply  put  a  written  con- 
stitution into  the  position  of  supremacy 
formerly  occupied  by  the  charter.  In- 
stead of  a  document  expressed  in  terms 
of  a  royal  grant,  they  adopted  a  docu- 
ment expressed  in  the  terms  of  a  popu- 
lar edict. 

"  To  this  the  Legislature  must  con- 
form ;  the  people  were  already  somewhat 
familiar  with  the  method  of  testing  the 
constitutionality  of  a  law  by  getting 
the  matter  brought  before  the  courts. 

"  The  mental  habit  thus  generated 
was  probably  more  important  than  any 
other  in  enabling  our  Federal  Union 
to  be  formed.  Without  it,  indeed,  it 
would  have  been  impossible  to  form  a 
durable  Union." 

When  the  truth  has  been  fully  dis- 


No.  10 — Time  sketches 


71 


cussed  and  established  in  the  minds  of 
educators  that  all  schools  should  be 
training -schools;  when  the  candidate 
for  the  teacher's  office  is  first  asked  to 
state  her  methods  of  training  the  mind 
rather  than  to  answer,  through  a  cer- 
tificate or  diploma,  the  all -important 
question,  "  How  much  do  you  know  ?" 
not  only  will  the  girls  and  boys  be  far 
better  prepared  for  honest  and  system- 
atic work  in  the  world,  but  the  stand- 
ard of  scholarship  will  be  raised,  be- 
cause in  the  years  spent  in  school  the 
habit  of  concentrating  attention  will 
have  been  gained,  the  memory  strength- 
ened, and  the  reasoning  faculties  as- 
sisted to  a  broad  and  comprehensive 
development. 

I  again  repeat  the  results  which 
have  been  accomplished  in  my  own 
school :  much  time  has  been  economized, 
more  instruction  received,  a  clearer  and 
broader  intelligence  secured  by  direct 
contact  with  the  teacher's  mind ;  and 
last,  but  by  no  means  least,  a  truer 


sympathy  has  existed  between  the 
teacher  and  scholar. 

If  the  necessity  for  gaining  a  liveli- 
hood could  be  stricken  out  as  a  prime 
factor  in  the  motive  for  teaching,  which 
almost  universally  exists,  how  many  of 
the  evils  which  we  now  deplore  in  the 
prevailing  system  of  education  would 
be  overcome ! 

Teaching,  the  most  sacred  of  all  pro- 
fessions— for  only  as  preaching  is  teach- 
ing is  it  Christlike  and  holy — is  unwill- 
ingly adopted  by  the  young  lady  who 
suddenly  finds  the  family  fortune  gone ; 
she  turns  to  teaching  as  the  only  em- 
ployment befitting  one  who  has  "  been 
brought  up  a  lady."  The  lack  of  special 
training  for  the  altogether  new  employ- 
ment she  soon  deplores,  for  she  finds 
herself  not  in  touch  with  the  minds  of 
her  pupils,  and  aimlessly,  save  for  the 
obtaining  of  the  salary,  gropes  her  way 
in  the  dark,  a  blind  guide. 

Our  hopes  for  the  future  of  the  art 
of  teaching  brighten  with  every  dis- 


covery  of  new  spheres  for  women,  and 
for  every  ingenious  device  which  fash- 
ion, fancy,  or  need  create  for  women's 
hands  to  do.  May  the  time  soon  come 
when  only  those  whose  minds  and  hearts 
have  been  thoroughly  trained  for  the 
work  shall  be  called  to  train  and  to 
teach  the  youth  of  our  country,  and 
may  the  call  to  teach  come  from  the 
heart  of  the  teacher,  and  not  alone  for 
the  sake  of  heaping  up  riches.  To 
be  the  good  teacher,  in  the  nobler  sense, 
demands  self-sacrifice  and  a  loving  in- 
terest in  those  pupils  who  need  such 
help  and  encouragement  as  they  could 
not  receive  but  for  her  liberality. 


CONCLUSION 

You  will  observe  that  I  have  not 
dwelt  upon  the  subject  of  memory 
apart  from  that  of  attention.  If  I  were 
compelled  to  sum  up  in  a  single  word 
all  that  is  embraced  in  the  expression 
"a  good  memory"  I  should  use  the 
word  attention.  Indeed,  I  would  de- 
fine education,  moral  and  intellectual, 
as  attention. 

"  The  teacher  who  labors  to  enlist  the 
strongest  and  noblest  feelings  on  the 
side  of  attention  to  the  most  important 
and  valuable  subjects  will  not  fail  to 
exert  not  only  a  great  influence  over 
the  mental  states  of  her  pupils  but  upon 
their  moral  principles." 

If  we  would  cultivate  in  our  own 
minds  as  well  as  in  the  minds  of  our 


pupils  the  power  of  an  individual  at- 
tention, concentrated  upon  that  which 
is  highest,  noblest,  and  best,  memory 
would  become  the  Kecording  Angel  of 
our  daily  lives, 

"And  not  an  image  of  the  past 
Should  fear  that  pencil's  touch." 


APPENDIX 


BELIEVING  that  a  few  words  stating 
more  clearly  the  principles  of  psychology, 
upon  which  the  system  of  mind-training  is 
based,  would  indicate  more  precisely  its 
value  as  a  solution  of  some  pedagogic 
problems,  I  append  a  few  relevant  quota- 
tions from  Ribot. 

In  the  following  pages  will  also  be 
found  some  suggestions  for  those  whose 
powers  of  memory,  either  by  neglect  or 
otherwise,  have  become  impaired,  which 
will,  I  think,  prove  helpful  if  conscien- 
tiously followed. 

NOTES  FROM  RIBOT 

The  process  through  which  voluntary  attention 
is  formed  may  be  reduced  to  the  following  single 
formula:  to  render  attractive,  by  artifice,  what  is 
not  so  by  nature  ;  to  give  an  artificial  interest  to 
things  that  have  not  a  natural  interest.  I  use 
the  word  "interest"  in  the  ordinary  sense,  equiv- 
alent to  the  periphrase  :  anything  that  keeps  the 


80 


mind  on  the  alert.  But  the  mind  is  only  kept 
alert  by  the  agreeable,  disagreeable,  or  mixed 
action  of  objects  upon  it — that  is,  by  emotional 
states.  The  whole  question,  accordingly,  is  re- 
duced to  the  finding  of  effective  motives  ;  if  the 
latter  be  wanting,  voluntary  attention  does  not 
appear. 

The  birth  of  voluntary  attention,  the  power  of 
fastening  the  mind  upon  non-attractive  objects, 
can  only  be  accomplished  by  force,  under  the  in- 
fluence of  education,  whether  derived  from  men 
or  things  external.  Education  derived  from  men 
is,  of  course,  the  most  easily  demonstrable,  but  it 
is  not  the  only  kind.  In  this  we  have  an  instance 
of  the  genesis  of  voluntary  attention.  It  was  nec- 
essary to  graft  upon  a  desire  natural  and  direct  a 
desire  artificial  and  indirect. 

Reading  is  an  operation  that  does  not  possess 
an  immediate  attraction,  but  as  a  means  to  an  end 
it  has  attraction,  a  kind  of  borrowed  attraction, 
and  that  is  sufficient,  in  order  to  impart  to  the 
purpose  in  view  a  power  of  action  that  it  natu- 
rally does  not  possess.  I  shall  now  indicate  these 
periods  in  point  of  time  into  which  voluntary  at- 
tention falls. 

In  the  first  period  the  educator  acts  only  upon 
simple  feelings.  He  employs  fear  in  all  its  forms, 
egotistic  tendencies,  the  attraction  of  rewards,  and 
tender  and  sympathetic  emotions. 

During  the  second  period  artificial  attention  is 
aroused  and  maintained  by  means  of  feelings  of 


81 


secondary  formation,  such  as  love  of  self,  emu- 
lation, ambition,  and  interest  in  a  practical  line, 
duty,  etc. 

The  third  period  is  that  of  organization;  atten- 
tion is  aroused  and  sustained  by  habit.  The  pu- 
pil in  the  class-room,  the  workman  in  his  shop, 
the  clerk  at  his  office,  the  tradesman  behind  his 
counter — all  would,  as  a  rule,  prefer  to  be  some- 
where else,  but  egotism,  ambition,  and  interest 
have  created,  by  repetition,  a  fixed  and  lasting- 
habit.  Acquired  attention  has  thus  become  a 
second  nature,  and  the  artificial  process  is  com- 
plete. The  mere  fact  of  being  placed  in  a  cer- 
tain attitude,  amid  certain  surroundings,  brings 
with  it  all  the  rest;  attention  is  produced  and  sus- 
tained less  through  present  causes  than  through 
accumulation  of  prior  causes,  habitual  motives 
having  acquired  the  force  of  natural  motives. 
Individuals  refractory  to  education  and  discipline 
never  attain  to  this  third  period  ;  in  such  people 
voluntary  attention  is  seldom  produced,  or  only 
intermittently,  and  cannot  become  a  habit. 

But,  in  truth,  we  should  be  destitute  of  all  gen- 
ius of  observation  or  blinded  by  prejudice  if  we 
did  not  perceive  that  voluntary  attention,  in  its 
durable  form,  is  really  a  difficult  state  to  sustain, 
and  that  actually  many  do  not  attain  to  it;  there- 
fore the  teacher  is  needed. 

Cases  also  occur  that  present  an  outline  at  least 
of  voluntary  attention,  which  is  natural  enough 

with  those  who  have  contracted  the  habit 
6 


82 


MEMORY  SELECTIONS 

The  selections  have  been  made  with  a 
view  to  assist  those  who  are  no  longer  in 
school.  The  subjects,  predicates,  or  key- 
words should  be  selected  at  first  from  a 
few  sentences  only,  and  written  ;  then 
read  the  sentences  which  contain  these 
leading  words  once,  and  with  these  be- 
fore you  try  to  recall  what  you  have  read. 
When  you  are  able  to  do  this  accurately 
and  without  hesitation,  add  one  or  two 
more  sentences,  and  try  to  repeat  them 
from  the  beginning.  Make  the  one  read- 
ing imperative,  even  if  you  can  read  but 
one  sentence  or  one  verse.  The  habit 
of  concentrating  the  attention  will  grow 
rapidly,  and  you  will  soon  find  your  mem- 
ory greatly  improved.  Practise  reading  a 
column  of  figures  once,  and  then  repro- 
ducing them  in  their  exact  order.  Listen 
to  a  number  of  words  being  read  ;  then 
try  to  repeat  them  exactly,  and  the  next 
day  try  to  recall  these  exercises.  The 
same  process  of  mental  work  which  the 
scholar  follows  at  school  will,  if  practised 


83 


every  day,  surely  prove  of  the  utmost  ben- 
efit to  those  who  desire  to  learn  to  concen- 
trate attention  and  to  possess  a  good  mem- 
ory. 

Some  of  the  following  selections  were 
made  as  having  no  interest  to  the  stu- 
dent, but  as  disciplining  the  mind  to  such 
a  degree  as  to  insure  a  retentive  memory. 
The  shorter  prose  articles  can  be  read 
through  without  pausing  for  the  recit- 
ing of  them  ;  the  longer  ones  should  be 
divided  into  two  or  three  readings  and 
recitations,  according  to  the  length.  They 
have  been  given  as  exercises  in  this  way 
in  my  school,  and  the  pupils  have  recited, 
often  without  hesitation,  the  entire  selec- 
tion after  weeks  and  even  months  have 
elapsed. 

ORANGE 

The  Orange  Art  Association  opened  its  spring 
exhibition  yesterday  at  No.  531  Main  Street,  East 
Orange.  The  exhibition  is  a  creditable  one,  and 
much  the  best  that  the  association  has  yet  given. 
There  are  eighty-five  pictures  on  the  walls— oils, 
water-colors,  black- and -whites,  and  architectural 
designs.  The  Exhibition  Committee  consists  of 
Charles  E.  Moss,  Chairman ;  Alexander  Brownlie, 


84 


Miss  C.  K.  Herrick,  Mrs.  George  L.  Kellogg,  and 
George  E.  Melencly. 

The  annual  meeting  of  the  East  Orange  Repub- 
lican Club  was  held  on  Thursday  evening,  and 
these  officers  were  elected  :  President,  Joel  W. 
Hatt ;  Vice-presidents,  J.  H.  Kattenstroth,  Mal- 
colm B.  Cole;  Secretary,  Harry  D.  Miller;  Treas- 
urer, Louis  T.  Muller  ;  Governors,  J.  H.  Palmer, 
Eugene  M.  Brewster,  William  D.  Gilbert,  E.  Ever- 
ett Mills,  and  Samuel  F.  Varian. 

MRS.   LE   DUG   TO    BEAD 

Mrs.  Janvier  Le  Due  will  give  a  reading  on 
Tuesday  afternoon,  at  4  o'clock,  at  the  Home  for 
Convalescents,  No.  433  East  One -hundred -and 
eighteenth  Street.  Mrs.  Le  Due,  who  was  a  Miss 
Spencer,  and  is  related  to  the  Lorillard  and  Clin- 
ton families,  is  to  give  reminiscences  of  the 
Prince  of  Wales's  visit  to  her  brother's  ranch. 
Her  principal  reading  that  afternoon,  however, 
will  be  on  the  historic  houses  of  Harlem,  includ- 
ing the  women  who  figured  prominently  in  Har- 
lem's social  annals  of  the  olden  time.  In  addition 
to  a  large  list  of  down-town  patronesses,  a  num- 
ber of  women  from  Harlem,  including  Mrs.  Don- 
ald MacLean,  Miss  Van  Buren  Vanderpoel,  Mrs. 
Jordan  L.  Mott,  Mrs.  P.  J.  Lewis  Searing,  and 
Mrs.  Charles  Fraser  MacLean,  are  interesting 
themselves  in  the  reading.  Miss  Grace  Cornell  is 


85 


to  give  some  mandolin  solos,  and  Miss  Adelaide 
Haight,  the  well-known  contralto,  will  sing  sev- 
eral ballads. 

MOVEMENTS  OF  THE  KOYAL  FAMILY 

The  Princess  of  Wales  arrived  at  Maiiborough 
House  on  Saturday  from  Denmark,  having  been 
absent  from  England  more  than  ten  weeks.  The 
Prince  and  Princess  of  Wales  are  expected  next 
week  at  Sandringham,  which  place  will  be  their 
headquarters  until  the  middle  of  January.  The 
Prince  has  gone  to  Newmarket  for  a  few  days. 
Prince  and  Princess  Christian  arrived  at  Bagshot 
on  Friday  from  Darmstadt,  and  are  staying  a  few 
days  with  the  Duke  and  Duchess  of  Connaught  be- 
fore settling  at  Cumberland  Lodge  for  the  winter, 
when  they  are  to  receive  a  visit  from  their  young- 
er daughter,  Princess  Aribert,  of  Anhalt,  who  has 
been  staying  at  Balmoral  with  the  Queen  during 
the  last  fortnight.  Prince  and  Princess  Edward, 
of  Saxe-Weimar,  who  have  been  staying  for  some 
time  at  Gordon  Castle  with  the  Duke  of  Rich- 
mond, are  to  be  guests  of  the  Prince  and  Princess 
of  Wales  at  Sandringham  next  month. 

CONVENTION   OF   THE    DEACONESSES 

The  eighth  annual  conference  of  the  Deacon- 
esses of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  was  con- 
tinued yesterday  at  the  Central  Methodist  Epis- 


86 


copal  Church,  Seventh  Avenue,  near  Fourteenth 
Street.  Bishop  Joyce,  of  Chattanooga,  presided. 
Among  those  who  read  papers  or  made  addresses 
were  Miss  Downing,  superintendent  of  the  Brook- 
lyn Home,  on  "The  Work  of  Deaconesses";  Miss 
Pierce,  superintendent  of  the  Cincinnati  Home, 
on  "The  Deaconesses,  Trained  in  Mind,  Heart, 
and  Spirit";  Miss  Lann,  of  the  New  England 
Home,  "  The  Spirit  of  the  Ideal  Deaconess  in 
Missionary  Work  " ;  the  Rev.  H.  C.  Weakley,  of 
Cincinnati,  "The  Deaconess  Among  the  Sick"; 
the  Rev.  J.  S.  Meyer,  of  Chicago,  "  The  Deacon- 
ess among  Children";  the  Rev.  Carl  Stoecker,  of 
Amsterdam,  N.  Y.,  "The  Deaconess  and  the  Res- 
cue Mission." 

It  was  voted  to  hold  the  next  annual  confer- 
ence at  Boston. 


WHAT   IS    GOING    ON    TO-DAY 

Dr.  Meyer  trial,  Court  of  General  Sessions. 

New  York  College  of  Music  commencement, 
Chickering  Hall,  8  P.M. 

Students'  Dramatic  Club  entertainment,  Berke- 
ley Lyceum,  evening. 

Keeley  Institute  reunion,  White  Plains. 

Harlem  Democratic  Club,  No.  106  West  One- 
himdred-and-twenty-sixth  Street,  8  P.M. 

Board  of  Education,  4  P.M. 

German  Good  Government  Club  organization, 
Harlem  Opera-house,  8  P.M. 


87 


Five  Points  Mission  farewell  meeting,  1:30  P.M. 

Northern  Pacific  Railroad  investigation. 

Independent  Democratic  County  Organization 
meeting,  Eighth  Avenue  and  Thirty  -  seventh 
Street,  evening. 

Farnham  Post,  G.A.R.,  reorganization,  Broad- 
way and  Forty-ninth  Street,  evening. 

Christian  Endeavor  convention,  Brooklyn. 

Salvation  Army  meetings — 11  A.M.,  Calvary 
Baptist  Church;  3  P.M.,  Association  Hall;  7:45 
P.M.,  Cooper  Union.  — New  York  Tribune. 

My  poetical  temperament  evinced  itself  at  a 
very  early  period.  The  village  church  was  at- 
tended every  Sunday  by  a  neighboring  squire, 
the  lord  of  the  manor,  whose  park  stretched 
quite  to  the  village,  and  whose  spacious  country- 
seat  seemed  to  take  the  church  under  its  pro- 
tection. Indeed,  you  would  have  thought  the 
church  had  been  consecrated  to  him  instead  of 
to  the  Deity.  The  parish  clerk  bowed  low  be- 
fore him,  and  the  vergers  humbled  themselves 
unto  the  dust  in  his  presence.  He  always  en- 
tered a  little  late,  and  with  some  stir :  striking 
his  cane  emphatically  on  the  ground,  swaying 
his  hat  in  his  hand,  and  looking  loftily  to  the 
right  and  left  as  he  walked  slowly  up  the  aisle  ; 
and  the  parson,  who  always  ate  his  Sunday  din- 
ner with  him,  never  commenced  service  until  he 
appeared.  He  sat  with  his  family  in  a  large 
pew,  gorgeously  lined,  humbling  himself  de- 


88 


voutly  on  velvet  cushions,  and  reading  lessons 
of  meekness  and  lowliness  of  spirit  out  of  splen- 
did gold-and-morocco  prayer-books.  Whenever 
the  parson  spoke  of  the  difficulty  of  a  rich  man's 
entering  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  the  eyes  of  the 
congregation  would  turn  towards  the  "grand 
pew,"  and  I  thought  the  squire  seemed  pleased 
with  the  application. 

Our  meals  were  solitary  and  unsocial.  My 
uncle  rarely  spoke ;  he  pointed  to  whatever  he 
wanted,  and  the  servant  perfectly  understood 
him.  Indeed,  his  man  John,  or  Iron  John,  as  he 
was  called  in  the  neighborhood,  was  a  counter- 
part of  his  master.  He  was  a  tall,  bony  old 
fellow,  with  a  dry  wig,  that  seemed  made  of 
cow's  tail,  and  a  face  as  tough  as  though  it  had 
been  made  of  cow's  hide.  He  was  generally  clad 
in  a  long,  patched  livery  coat,  taken  out  of  the 
wardrobe  of  the  house,  and  which  bagged  loose- 
ly about  him,  having  evidently  belonged  to  some 
corpulent  predecessor,  in  the  more  plenteous 
days  of  the  mansion.  From  long  habits  of  taci- 
turnity, the  hinges  of  his  jaws  seemed  to  have 
grown  absolutely  rusty,  and  it  cost  him  as  much 
effort  to  set  them  ajar,  and  to  let  out  a  tolerable 
sentence,  as  it  would  have  done  to  set  open  the 
iron  gates  of  the  park,  and  let  out  the  old  fam- 
ily carriage  that  was  dropping  to  pieces  in  the 
coach-house.  — WASHINGTON  IRVING 


89 


SHE  WAS  A  PHANTOM    OF    DELIGHT 

She  was  a  Phantom  of  delight 

When  first  she  gleamed  upon  my  sight ; 

A  lovely  Apparition,  sent 

To  be  a  moment's  ornament ; 

Her  eyes  as  stars  of  Twilight  fair  ; 

Like  Twilight's,  too,  her  dusky  hair  ; 

But  all  things  else  about  her  drawn 

From  May -time  and  the  cheerful  Dawn  ; 

A  dancing  Shape,  an  Image  gay, 

To  haunt,  to  startle,  and  waylay. 

I  saw  her  upon  nearer  view, 

A  Spirit,  yet  a  Woman,  too ! 

Her  household  motions  light  and  'free, 

And  steps  of  virgin  liberty  ; 

A  countenance  in  which  did  meet 

Sweet  records,  promises  as  sweet ; 

A  Creature,  not  too  bright  or  good 

For  human  nature's  Daily  food  ; 

For  transient  sorrows,  simple  wiles, 

Praise,  blame,  love,  kisses,  tears,  and  smiles. 

And  now  I  see  with  eye  serene 

The  very  pulse  of  the  machine  ; 

A  Being  breathing  thoughtful  breath, 

A  Traveller  between  life  and  death  ; 

The  reason  firm,  the  temperate  will, 

•Endurance,  foresight,  strength,  and  skill ; 


90 


A  perfect  Woman,  nobly  planned, 
To  warn,  to  comfort,  and  command ; 
And  yet  a  Spirit  still,  and  bright 
With  something  of  an  angel  light. 

—WORDSWORTH. 


Farewell,  a  long  farewell,  to  all  my  greatness ! 
This  is  the  state  of  man  :  To-day  he  puts  forth 
The  tender  leaves  of  hope;  to-morrow  blossoms, 
And  bears  his  blushing  honors  thick  upon  him ; 
The  third  day  comes  a  frost,  a  killing  frost, 
And — when  he  thinks,  good  easy  man,  full  surely 
His  greatness  is  a-ripening — nips  his  root, 
And  then  he  falls,  as  I  do.     I  have  ventured 
Like  little  wanton  boys  that  swim  on  bladders, 
This  many  Summers  in  a  sea  of  glory  ; 
But  far  beyond  my  depth :  my  high-blown  pride 
At  length  broke  under  me  ;  and  now  has  left  me, 
Weary  and  old  with  service,  to  the  mercy 
Of  a  rude  stream,  that  must  forever  hide  me. 
Vain  pomp  and  glory  of  this  world,  I  hate  ye  : 
I  feel  my  heart  new  open'd.     O  how  wretched 
Is  that  poor  man  that  hangs  on  princes'  favors! 
There  is,  betwixt  that  smile  we  would  aspire  to, 
That  sweet  aspect  of  princes,  and  their  ruin, 
More  pangs  and  fears  than  wars  or  women  have ; 
And  when  he  falls,  he  falls  like  Lucifer, 
Never  to  hope  again. 

—SHAKESPEARE. 


91 


MARJORIE    FLEMING 

One  November  afternoon  in  1810 — the  year  in 
which  Waverley  was  resumed  and  laid  aside  again, 
to  be  finished  off,  its  last  ten  volumes  in  three 
weeks,  and  made  immortal  in  1814,  and  when  its 
author,  by  the  death  of  Lord  Melville,  narrowly 
escaped  getting  a  civil  appointment  in  India — 
three  men,  evidently  lawyers,  might  have  been 
seen  escaping  like  school-boys  from  the  Parlia- 
ment House,  and  speeding  arm  -  in  -  arm  down 
Bank  Street  and  the  Mound,  in  the  teeth  of  a 
surly  blast  of  sleet. 

The  three  friends  sought  the  Meld  of  the  low 
wall  old  Edinburgh  boys  remember  well,  and 
sometimes  miss  now  as  they  struggle  with  the 
stout  west  wind. 

The  three  were  curiously  unlike  each  other. 
One,  "  a  little  man  of  feeble  make,  who  would  be 
unhappy  if  his  pony  got  beyond  a  foot's  pace," 
slight, with  "small,  elegant  features,  hectic  cheek, 
and  soft,  hazel  eyes,  the  index  of  the  quick,  sensi- 
tive spirit  within,  as  if  he  had  the  warm  heart  of 
a  woman,  her  genuine  enthusiasm,  and  some  of 
her  weaknesses."  Another,  as  unlike  a  woman  as 
a  man  can  be  ;  homely,  almost  common  in  look 
and  figure  ;  his  hat  and  coat  and,  indeed,  his  en- 
tire covering  worn  to  the  quick,  but  all  of  the 
best  material.  What  redeemed  him  from  vul- 
garity and  meanness  were  his  eyes,  deep  -  set, 
heavily  thatched,  keen,  hungry,  shrewd,  with 


92 


a  slumbering  glow  far  in,  as  if  they  could  be 
dangerous ;  a  man  to  care  nothing  for  at  first 
glance,  but  somehow  to  give  a  second  and  not 
forgetting  look  at.  The  third  was  the  biggest 
of  the  three,  and  though  lame,  nimble  and  all 
rough  and  alive  with  power ;  had  you  met  him 
anywhere  else,  you  would  say  he  was  a  Liddes- 
dale  store  -  farmer  come  of  gentle  blood  ;  "a 
stout,  blunt  carle,"  as  he  says  of  himself,  with 
the  swing  and  stride  and  the  eye  of  a  man  of  the 
hills  —  a  large,  sunny,  out-of-door  air  all  about 
him.  On  his  broad  and  somewhat  stooping 
shoulders  was  set  that  head  which,  with  Shakes- 
peare's and  Bonaparte's,  is  the  best  known  in 
the  world.  He  was  in  high  spirits,  keeping  his 
companions  and  himself  in  roars  of  laughter,  and 
every  now  and  then  seizing  them,  and  stopping, 
that  they  might  take  their  fill  of  the  fun ;  there 
they  stood  shaking  with  laughter,  "not  an  inch 
of  their  body  free  "  from  its  grip.  At  George 
Street  they  parted,  one  to  Rose  Court,  behind 
St.  Andrew's  Church,  one  to  Albany  Street,  the 
other,  our  big  and  limping  friend,  to  Castle 
Street. 

We  need  hardly  give  their  names.  The  first 
was  William  Eskine,  afterwards  Lord  Kinedder, 
chased  out  of  the  world  by  a  calumny,  killed  by 
its  foul  breath— 

"And  at  the  touch  of  wrong  without  a  strife 
Slipped  in  a  moment  out  of  life." 


93 


There  is  nothing  in  literature  more  beautiful  or 
more  pathethic  than  Scott's  love  and  sorrow  for 
this  friend  of  his  youth.  The  second  was  Will- 
iam Clerk,  the  Darsie  Latimer  of  Redgauntlet ; 
"a  man, "as  Scott  says,  "of  the  most  acute  in- 
tellect and  powerful  apprehension,"  but  of  more 
powerful  indolence,  so  as  to  leave  the  world  with 
little  more  than  a  report  of  what  he  might  have 
been — a  humorist  as  genuine,  though  not  quite 
so  savagely  Swiftian  as  his  brother,  Lord  Eldin, 
neither  of  whom  had  much  of  that  commonest 
and  best  of  humors  called  good.  The  third  we 
all  know.  What  has  he  not  done  for  every  one 
of  us  ?  Who  else  ever,  except  Shakespeare,  so 
diverted  mankind,  entertained  and  entertains  a 
world  so  liberally,  so  wholesomely  ?  We  are 
fain  to  say  not  even  Shakespeare,  for  his  is 
something  deeper  than  diversion,  something  high- 
er than  pleasure,  and  yet  who  would  care  to  split 
this  hair  ?  — Dr.  JOHN  BROWN. 

TOUSSAINT  L'OUVERTURE 

If  I  were  to  tell  you  the  story  of  Napoleon,  I 
should  take  it  from  the  lips  of  Frenchmen,  who 
find  no  language  rich  enough  to  paint  the  great 
captain  of  the  nineteenth  century.  Were  I  to 
tell  you  the  story  of  Washington,  I  should  take 
it  from  your  hearts  —  you  who  think  no  marble 
white  enough  on  which  to  carve  the  name  of 
the  father  of  his  country.  But  I  am  to  tell  you 


the  story  of  a  negro,  Toussaint  1'Ouverture,  who 
has  hardly  left  one  written  line.  I  am  to  glean 
it  from  the  reluctant  testimony  of  his  enemies, 
men  who  despised  him  because  he  was  a  negro 
and  a  slave,  hated  him  because  he  had  beaten 
them  in  battle. 

Cromwell  manufactured  his  own  army.  Na- 
poleon, at  the  age  of  twenty-seven,  was  placed  at 
the  head  of  the  best  troops  Europe  ever  saw. 
Cromwell  never  saw  an  army  till  he  was  forty ; 
this  man  never  saw  a  soldier  till  he  was  fifty. 

Cromwell  manufactured  his  own  army — out  of 
what  ?  Englishmen — the  best  blood  in  Europe. 
Out  of  the  middle  class  of  Englishmen— the  best 
blood  of  the  island.  And  with  it  he  conquered 
what?  Englishmen  —  their  equals.  This  man 
manufactured  his  army  out  of  what  ?  Out  of 
what  you  call  the  despicable  race  of  negroes — de- 
based, demoralized  by  two  hundred  years  of  sla- 
very, one  hundred  thousand  of  them  imported  into 
the  island  within  four  years,  unable  to  speak  a 
dialect  intelligible  even  to  each  other.  Yet  out 
of  this  mixed  and,  as  you  say,  despicable  mass,  he 
forged  a  thunderbolt  and  hurled  it  at  what  ?  At 
the  proudest  blood  in  Europe,  the  Spaniard,  and 
sent  him  home  conquered  ;  at  the  most  warlike 
blood  in  Europe,  the  French,  and  put  them  un- 
der his  feet ;  at  the  pluckiest  blood  in  Europe, 
the  English,  and  they  skulked  home  to  Jamaica. 
Now  if  Cromwell  was  a  general,  at  least  this  man 
was  a  soldier. 


95 


Now,  blue-eyed  Saxon,  proud  of  your  race,  go 
back  with  me  to  the  commencement  of  the  cen- 
tury, and  select  what  statesman  you  please.  Let 
him  be  either  American  or  European  ;  let  him 
have  a  brain  the  result  of  six  generations  of 
culture  ;  let  him  have  the  ripest  training  of  uni- 
versity routine  ;  let  him  add  to  it  the  better  edu- 
cation of  practical  life  ;  crown  his  temples  with 
the  silvery  locks  of  seventy  years,  and  show  me 
the  man  of  Saxon  lineage  for  whom  his  most 
sanguine  admirer  will  wreathe  a  laurel  rich  as 
imbittered  foes  have  placed  on  the  brow  of  this 
negro  —  rare  military  skill,  profound  knowledge 
of  human  nature,  content  to  blot  out  all  party 
distinctions,  and  trust  a  State  to  the  blood  of  its 
sons — anticipating  Sir  Robert  Peel  fifty  years, 
and  taking  his  station  by  the  side  of  Roger  Will- 
iams before  any  Englishman  or  American  had 
won  the  right ;  and  yet  this  is  the  record  which 
the  history  of  rival  States  makes  up  for  this  in- 
spired black  of  St.  Domingo. 

Some  doubt  the  courage  of  the  negro.  Go  to 
Hayti,  and  stand  on  those  fifty  thousand  graves 
of  the  best  soldiers  France  ever  had,  and  ask 
them  what  they  think  of  the  negro's  sword. 

I  would  call  him  Napoleon,  but  Napoleon 
made  his  way  to  empire  over  broken  oaths  and 
through  a  sea  of  blood.  This  man  never  broke 
his  word.  I  would  call  him  Cromwell,  but 
Cromwell  was  only  a  soldier,  and  the  State  he 
founded  went  down  with  him  into  his  grave.  I 


96 


would  call  him  Washington,  but  the  great  Vir- 
ginian held  slaves.  This  man  risked  his  empire 
rather  than  permit  the  slave-trade  in  the  hum- 
blest village  of  his  dominions. 

You  think  me  a  fanatic,  for  you  read  history 
not  with  your  eyes,  b\J$  with  your  prejudices. 
But  fifty  years  hence,  when  Truth  gets  a  hearing, 
the  Muse  of  history  will  put  Phocion  for  the 
Greek,  Brutus  for  the  Roman,  Hampden  for 
England,  Fayette  for  France,  choose  Washington 
as  the  bright,  consummate  flower  of  our  earlier 
civilization ;  then  dipping  her  penin  the  sunlight 
will  write,  in  the  clear  blue  above  them  all,  the 
name  of  the  soldier,  the  statesman,  the  martyr 
— Toussaint  1'Ouverture. — WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

GOOD    PRICES    FOR   FIRST    EDITIONS 

The  Johnson  book  sale,  which  has  been  going 
on  for  the  last  three  days  at  Bangs  &  Co.'s  auc- 
tion rooms,  has  been  a  most  important  sale  of 
first  editions.  After  the  first  day  good  prices 
were  paid.  The  following  are  the  best  figures  of 
the  sale  yesterday :  A  set  of  Ainsworth,  68  vol- 
umes, $170;  Charlotte  and  Emily  Bronte's  works, 
first  edition,  20  volumes,  $125  ;  Dickens's  The 
Village  Coquettes,  1836,  $105  ;  Maria  Edgeworth's 
Tales  and  Novels,  bound  by  Tout,  $112.50  ;  Beau- 
ty and  the  Beast,  only  three  copies  of  which  are 
known  in  this  edition,  $162.50  ;  Charles  Lever,  in 
3d  volumes,  $325  ;  nine  volumes  of  Ruskin,  $324 ; 


97 


Shelley's  Queen  Mob,  published  by  the  author, 
with  an  autograph  letter  of  Shelley's,  $150. 

— New  York  Tribune. 

TO    DAFFODILS. 

O  yellow  flowers  that  Herrick  sung! 

O  yellow  flowers  that  danced  and  swung 
In  Wordsworth's  verse,  and  now  to  me, 
Unworthy,  from  this  "pleasant  lea," 

Laugh  back,  unchanged,  and  ever  young ; 

Ah  !  what  a  text  to  us  o'erstrung, 
O'erwrought,  o'erreaching,  hoarse  of  lung, 
You  teach  by  that  immortal  glee, 
O  3rellow  flowers  ! 

We,  by  the  Age's  oestrus  stung, 
Still  hunt  the  New  with  eager  tongue, 
Vexed  ever  by  the  Old  ;  but  ye, 
What  ye  have  been  ye  still  shall  be 
When  we  are  dust  the  dust  among, 
O  yellow  flowers  ! 

—AUSTIN  DOBSON. 

HOUSEHOLD  ART 

"Mine  be  a  cot"  for  the  hours  of  play, 
Of  the  kind  that  is  built  by  Miss  Greenaway ; 
Where  the  walls  are  low,  and  the  roofs  are  red, 
And  the  birds  are  gay  in  the  blue  o'erhead  ; 
And  dear  little  figures,  in  frocks  and  frills, 
Go  roaming  about  at  their  own  sweet  wills, 


98 


And  play  with  the  pups,  and  reprove  the  calves, 
And  do  naught   in  the  world  (but  Work)  by 

halves, 

From  "Hunt  the  Slipper"  and  "  Riddle-me-ree  " 
To  watching  the  cat  in  the  apple-tree. 

O  Art  of  the  Household  !    Men  may  prate 

Of  their  ways  "intense"  and  Italianate — 

They  may  soar  on  their  wings  of  sense,  and  float 

To  the  audeld  and  the  dim  remote — 

Till  the  last  sun  sink  in  the  last-lit  west, 

'Tis   the  Art  at  the  Door  that  will  please  the 

best ; 

To  the  end  of  Time  'twill  be  still  the  same, 
For  the  Earth  first  laughed  when  the  children 

came  !  — AUSTIN  DOBSON. 

THE    CURB'S    PROGRESS 

Monsieur  the  Cure  down  the  street 

Comes  with  his  kind  old  face — 
With  his   coat  worn   bare,  and   his   straggling 
hair, 

And  his  green  umbrella-case. 

You  may  see  him  pass  by  the  little  "Grande 
Place," 

And  the  tiny  "H6tel  de  Ville." 
He  smiles,  as  he  goes,  to  the  fleuriste  Rose, 

And  the  pompier  Theophile. 

He  turns,  as  a  rule,  through  the  "  Marche"  cool, 
Where  the  noisy  fish- wives  call ; 


99 


And  his  compliment  pays  to  the  "belle  Thermae," 
As  she  knits  in  her  dusky  stall. 

There's  a  letter  to  drop  at  the  locksmith's  shop, 

And  Toto,  the  locksmith's  niece, 
Has  jubilant  hopes,  for  the  Cure  gropes 

In  his  tails  for  a  pain  d'epice. 

There's  a  little  dispute  with  a  merchant  of  fruit, 

Who  is  said  to  be  heterodox, 
That  will  ended  be  with  a  "Ma  foi,  oui  1" 

And  a  pinch  from  the  Cure's  box. 

There  is  also  a  word  that  no  one  heard 

To  the  furrier's  daughter  Lou; 
And  a  pale  cheek  fed  with  a  flickering  red, 

And  a  "Bon  Dieu,  garde  m'sieu  !" 

But  a  grander  way  for  the  Sous-Prefet, 
And  a  bow  for  Ma'am'selle  Anne  ; 

And  a  mock  "off-hat"  to  the  Notary's  cat, 
And  a  nod  to  the  Sacristan  ; 

For  ever  through  life  the  Cure  goes 
With  a  smile  on  his  kind  old  face — 

With  his  coat  worn  bare,  and  his  straggling  hair, 
And  his  green  umbrella- case. 

— AUSTIN  DOBSON. 

FROM  "ARETHUSA" 

Then  Alpheus  bold, 
On  his  glacier  cold, 


100 

With  his  trident  the  mountains  struck  ; 

And  opened  a  chasm 

In  the  rocks  ;  with  the  spasm 
All  Erymanthus  shook. 

And  the  black  south  wind 

It  concealed  behind 
The  urns  of  silent  snow, 

And  earthquake  and  thunder 

Did  rend  in  sunder 
The  bars  of  the  springs  below. 

The  beard  and  the  hair 

Of  the  River-god  were 
Seen  through  the  torrent's  sweep, 

As  he  followed  the  light 

Of  the  fleet  nymph's  flight 
To  the  brink  of  the  Dorian  deep. 

PHILIP,   MY  KING 

"Who  bears  upon  his  baby  brow  the  round  and  top  of  sov- 
ereignty." 

Look  at  me  with  thy  large  brown  eyes, 

Philip,  my  king  ! 

For  round  thee  the  purple  shadow  lies 
Of  babyhood's  royal  dignities. 
Lay  on  my  neck  thy  tiny  hand 

With  Love's  invisible  sceptre  laden ; 
1  am  thine  Esther,  to  command 
Till  thou  shalt  find  thy  queen-handmaiden, 
Philip,  my  king ! 

Oh,  the  day  when  thou  goest  a- wooing, 
Philip,  my  king  ! 


101 


When  those  beautiful  lips  'gin  suing, 
And,  some  gentle  heart's  bars  undoing, 
Thou  dost  enter,  love-crowned,  and  there 

Sittest  love  glorified  !    Rule  kindly, 
Tenderly  over  thy  kingdom  fair  ; 

For  we  that  love,  ah  !  we  love  so  blindly, 
Philip,  my  king  ! 

I  gaze  from  thy  sweet  mouth  up  to  thy  brow, 

Philip,  my  king ! 

The  spirit  that  there  lies  sleeping  now 
May  rise  like  a  giant,  and  make  men  bow 
As  to  one  Heaven-chosen  amongst  his  peers, 

My  Saul,  than  thy  brethren  higher  and  fairer, 
Let  me  behold  thee  in  future  years  I 
Yet  thy  head  needeth  a  circlet  rarer, 
Philip,  my  king — 

A  wreath,  not  of  gold,  but  palm.     One  day, 

Philip,  my  king  ! 

Thou,  too,  must  tread,  as  we  trod,  a  way 
Thorny  and  cruel  and  cold  and  gray ; 
Rebels  within  thee  and  foes  without 
Will  snatch  at  thy  crown.     But   march  on, 

glorious 

Martyr,  yet  monarch  !  till  angels  shout, 
As  thou  sitt'st  at  the  feet  of  God  victorious,' 
"Philip,  the  king!" 

— D.  M.  MULOCK. 


Mr.  Charles  Dudley  Warner,  in  the  Editor's  Study 
of  HARPER'S  MAGAZINE  for  March,  1895,  writes 
as  follows  in  regard  to  the  author's  method : 

Still  speaking  of  our  systematical  education, 
it  is  more  and  more  evident,  as  we  are  feeding 
more  and  more  into  it  to  be  ground  out  in  knowl- 
edge for  the  individual,  that  the  scheme  does  not 
adequately  provide  for  the  training  of  the  organ 
that  is  to  acquire  and  assimilate  the  knowledge. 
Students  are  set  to  tasks,  and  the  burden  increases 
with  every  discovery  of  science  and  with  our  en- 
larged conception  of  the  world  of  thought,  quite 
beyond  their  mental  power  to  manage.  The  re- 
sult is  intellectual  confusion,  and  often  a  physical 
break-down.  That  which  we  call  the  mind  is 
hardly  ever  trained  to  do  that  which  is  required 
of  it.  We  treat  it  as  if  it  were  a  receptacle  which 
could  be  stuffed  with  ideas,  instead  of  a  living 
means  of  mastering  and  assimilating  ideas.  And 
the  distaste  for  study  and  the  inability  to  carry 
on  an  ordinary  school  course  are  commonly  due 
to  lack  of  mental  training.  The  mind  is  the  tool 
with  which  the  student  has  to  work,  and  if  it  is 
dull  and  he  does  not  know  how  to  handle  it,  it  is 
impossible  for  him  to  do  the  work  required  of 
him.  As  well  expect  an  artist  or  a  craftsman  to 
succeed  if  he  has  not  mastered  the  means  of  ex- 
pressing his  thought. 


103 


Of  course  we  know  that  memory  is  essential  in 
any  study  ;  that  is,  the  power  of  recalling  for  use 
an  impression.  We  also  know  that  this  power  of 
recalling  an  impression  depends  much  upon  the 
vividness  with  which  it  is  made,  the  accuracy  of 
it ;  and  that  depends  upon  our  closeness  of  obser- 
vation and  our  fixed  attention  at  the  moment. 
We  therefore  say  that  to  cultivate  the  power  of 
accurate  observation  and  fixed  attention  is  the 
first  requisite  of  mental  discipline.  This  power 
of  fixing  the  attention — it  must  be  a  habit  con- 
stantly exercised  on  anything  brought  under  ob- 
servation if  it  is  to  be  valuable — is  not  merely, 
however,  for  strengthening  the  memory,  it  is  an 
essential  mental  training  for  investigation  and  for 
clarity  of  thought  and  expression  every  hour. 
Undeniably  our  common  habit  in  this  respect  is 
bad  and  slovenly.  We  do  not  commonly  fix  the 
attention  enough  to  listen  intelligently.  Take  an 
ordinary  conversation  at  a  dinner -table,  or  be- 
tween a  group  of  friends,  or  in  a  committee  meet- 
ing, and  notice  how  few  accurately  hear  what  is 
said,  or  comprehend,  or  keep  to  the  point.  This 
is  commonly  not  from  lack  of  intelligence,  but 
from  lack  of  attention.  This  slovenly  habit  not 
only  deprives  us  of  one  of  the  keenest  pleasures 
of  life,  but  it  is  fatal  to  intellectual  integrity,  it  is 
demoralizing  to  the  mental  power.  The  majority 
of  people  read  with  the  same  feeble  attention, 
and  sit  out  a  lecture,  or  address,  or  a  sermon,  in 
the  same  inattentive  wool-gathering  state  of  mind. 


104 

It  is  easy  to  test  this.  Mingle  with  any  dispersing 
lecture  audience,  and  see  how  few  have  intelli- 
gently followed  the  lecturer,  or  comprehended 
his  argument  and  purpose,  or  taken  his  emphatic 
points,  or  can  give  anything  like  an  analysis  or  a 
coherent  statement  of  what  has  been  said  in  their 
hearing.  It  has,  as  we  say,  gone  into  one  ear  and 
out  at  the  other  ;  probably  very  little  of  it  has 
passed  through  the  head  even  in  that  way.  And 
the  damage  to  the  auditor  is  not  in  what  he  has 
missed — for  the  lecture  or  sermon  may  be  value- 
less— but  in  the  mental  demoralization  the  process 
causes  him.  He  is  confirming  a  habit  of  inatten- 
tion that  is  disadvantageous  to  him  in  anything 
he  may  attempt./  It  may  not  be  important  that 
he  should  go  to  any  lecture,  but  if  he  does  go  'it 
is  all-important  to  his  mind  that  he  should  give 
his  fixed  and  best  attention  to  it,  irrespective  of 
its  quality ;  that  he  listen  to  it  with  an  absorption 
that  would  enable  him  not  only  to  follow  it  step 
by  step,  but  to  reproduce  a  complete  analysis  of 
it  when  he  gets  home.  One  great  cause  of  the 
mental  demoralization  of  the  majority  of  people 
is  the  way  they  hear  sermons  and  lectures.)  They 
hear  without  hearing,  they  do  not  fix  their  atten- 
tion, their  minds  are  not  active  on  the  thing  in 
hand,  and  the  result  is  cultivation  of  lack  of  men- 
tal power.  I  mean,  of  course,  half -listening,  the 
listless  attitude,  which  catches  now  and  then  a 
sentence  or  an  illustration,  but  mingles  what  is 
said  with  a  confused  muddle  of  its  own  wander- 


105 


ing  thoughts.  The  person  who  goes  to  sleep  at 
church,  or  who  never  pretends  to  hear  a  word 
from  the  pulpit,  but  follows  out  a  train  of  con- 
secutive thought  of  his  own,  will  sustain  no  dam- 
age. People  sometimes  have  odd  ideas  of  wor- 
ship. Their  attention,  or  lack  of  attention,  to  the 
sermon  has  no  relation  to  worship,  but  it  does 
concern  the  power  of  the  mind. 

I  have  said  that  memory,  as  well  as  mental  vig- 
or for  investigation,  depends  upon  this  power  of 
attention.  But  we  have  to  recognize  personal 
differences  in  memory.  No  matter  what  the  train- 
ing is,  some  memories  are  much  more  retentive 
than  others,  and  this  difference  does  not  depend 
upon  the  ease  or  the  difficulty  with  which  the 
impression  is  made.  With  some  the  single  read- 
log  of  a  poem  enables  them  to  recall  it  for  an  in- 
definite time  ;  with  others,  the  utmost  labor  of 
memorizing  will  only  enable  them  to  recall  it  for 
a  little  while.  But  with  all,  the  power  of  atten- 
tion will  greatly  improve  the  working  quality  of 
the  memory. 

Can  this  power  of  attention  be  taught,  and  is  it 
essential  in  our  increasingly  widening  system  of 
education  ? 

In  this  connection  it  seems  a  public  service  to 
give  the  widest  publicity  to  a  method  of  mind- 
training,  or  "concentrated  attention/'  practised 
by  Miss  Catharine  Aiken  in  her  girl's  school  in 
Stamford,  Connecticut.  The  training  there,  which 
occupies  not  more  than  twenty  minutes  a  day,  is 


106 

distinctly  a  means  to  an  end.  It  is  well  known 
that  most  students  are  at  a  disadvantage  in  at- 
tacking any  subject,  because  their  minds  are  un- 
trained. To  fix  the  attention  is  necessary  in  any 
occupation.  Can  the  power  of  doing  so  be  cul- 
tivated ?  Is  there  any  means  of  cultivating  the 
habit  of  concentrating  the  attention  ?  If  there 
is,  then  it  is  evident  that  the  student  will  be 
saved  a  vast  amount  of  mental  drudgery,  and 
will  economize  time  which  is  so  often  wasted  in 
study  hours. 

The  means  in  use  at  Stamford  are  very  simple. 

There  is  used  a  variety  of  exercises  with  the  sole 
object  of  concentrating  the  attention.  Others  are 
practised  upon  individual  pupils.  In  all  cases 
the  inspiration  of  the  moment  urges  the  pupil  to 
concentrated  attention.  Cognate  to  this  is  the 
cultivation  of  the  art  of  listening.  As  this  power 
of  continuous  attention  increased  with  practice, 
the  pupils  could  repeat  long  passages  of  prose 
and  poetry  heard  but  once.  Incidentally,  of 
course,  were  taught  by  this  exercise  the  princi- 
ples of  rhetoric  in  the  proper  structure  and  forms 
of  sentences. 

I  am  able  to  add  some  testimony  as  to  the  value 
of  this  method.  A  lecturer  recently  read  a  some- 
what technical  paper  to  this  school  on  English 
language.  The  girls  listened  intently.  The  fol- 
lowing week,  at  the  occasion  of  the  next  lecture, 
he  was  shown  the  reports  of  the  first.  Most  of 
these  reports  astonished  him  :  they  were  so  supe- 


107 


rior  to  any  other  reporters'  work  that  he  had  seen 
that  he  was  certain  they  were  accomplished  by 
the  use  of  stenography.  They  were  a  complete 
analysis  of  the  whole  lecture,  the  substance  and 
form,  and  to  a  surprising  extent  the  phraseology 
— as  he  said,  "  Why,  they  had  the  whole  thing." 
There  had  been,  however,  no  stenography,  nor 
any  extended  note  taking.  The  work  was  the 
result  of  the  cultivation  of  the  art  of  listening 
and  of  concentrated  attention. 

Owing  to  the  popular  notion  that  anybody 
can  teach,  and  that  teaching  must  be  cheap,  we 
have  had  cheap  teaching  in  this  country,  especially 
in  the  lower  schools,  where  untrained  girls  have 
been  paid  all  they  were  worth.  The  Study  has 
had  something  to  say  about  the  employment  of 
incompetent  teachers,  the  majority  of  them  being 
women.  It  now  desires  to  call  attention  to  the 
fact  that  in  the  recent  educational  awakening, 
and  the  training  of  girls  for  their  profession,  two 
of  the  most  important  contributions  to  the  science 
of  education  in  our  schools  have  been  made  by 
women  :  Miss  Mary  Burt's  method  of  beginning 
with  literature  in  the  education  of  the  very  young, 
and  Miss  Catharine  Aiken's  method  of  mind-train- 
ing or  concentrated  attention. 


The  author  has  received  numerous  letters  in  re- 
gard to  the  success  of  Jier  method  of  mental  training, 
from  which  the  following  are  selected : 

VASSAR   COLLEGE,  POUGHKEEPSIE,  N.  Y., 

May  10,  1889, 

DEAR  MADAM, — I  am  glad  to  read  your  little 
book  on  mind -training.  You  will,  perhaps,  re- 
member my  call  at  your  school.  I  was  deeply 
impressed  by  the  results  you  had  gained,  and 
have  repeatedly  spoken  of  them  to  others.  I  do 
not  think  you  can  tell  the  half;  the  work  must 
be  seen  in  its  progress  to  be  fully  appreciated.  The 
results  of  your  plan  seemed  to  me  remarkable. 
With  kind  regards,  I  am,  very  truly  yours, 

J.  M.  TAYLOR. 

CLARK  UNIVERSITY,  WORCESTER,  MASS., 

Sept.  13,  1895. 

DEAR  Miss  AIKEN, — The  exercises  which  I  saw 
in  your  school  interested  me  greatly.  I  should 
not  have  thought  such  rapidity  and  certainty 
possible  had  I  not  seen  it.  The  value  of  such 
work,  as  one  factor  of  mental  training,  I  should 
certainly  think  was  very  great,  and  1  am  glad 
there  is  some  prospect  of  your  methods  being 
published,  so  that  we  can  know  more  of  them. 
I  am,  very  sincerely  yours, 

G.  STANLEY  HALL. 


109 

NEW  YORK,  Sept.  19,  1895. 

MY  DEAR  Miss  AIKEN,  —  Though  we  had 
planned  to  send  our  daughter  elsewhere  before 
seeing  the  results  of  your  method,  we  have  de- 
cided to  give  her  the  benefit  of  your  superior 
training  for  a  year. 

I  was  much  impressed  by  what  I  saw  and  heard 
of  your  commencement  exercises,  and  since  then 
have  described  to  many  your  method  of  fixing 
attention  and  of  cultivating  the  memory. 

If  I  could  have  had  that  training  when  a  boy 
I  should  have  put  forty  years  into  the  last  twenty. 

I  greatly  regret  that  our  son  and  our  oldest 
daughter  cannot  have  the  benefit  of  it.  Yours, 
with  great  esteem, 

JOSIAH  STRONG. 

I  have  been  an  unhappy  witness  of  Miss  Aikin'S 
methods  of  memory  training  on  more  than  one  oc- 
casion; unhappy  because  the  young  people  pres- 
ent so  easily  distanced  me  in  every  test  to  which 
she  put  them.  I  would  give  much  to  possess  the 
alertness,  accuracy,  and  concentration  which  she 
develops  in  her  pupils  by  means  of  her  interest- 
ing exercises. 

KATE  DOUGLAS  WIG  GIN. 

106  East  74th  Street,  New  York, 

November  4th,  1895. 

MY  DEAR  Miss  AIKEN,  —  It  gives  me  great 
pleasure  to  tell  you  of  the  success  I  have  had 


110 


with  your  exercises  for  concentration.  They 
have  been  particularly  satisfactory  with  my  piano 
pupils  in  memorizing  their  pieces.  In  several  in- 
stances the  results  have  been  remarkable.  In 
every  case  I  have  observed  an  awakening  of  all 
the  faculties. 

I  am  very  glad  that  you  propose  publishing  a 
text-book  upon  the  subject,  for  I  am  convinced 
that  the  system  applied  by  a  judicious  teacher 
will  go  far  to  revolutionize  old  methods.  Very 
truly  yours, 

MARY  H.  BURN  HAM. 


THE  END 


Halleck's  Psychology  and 
Psychic  Culture 

BY  REUBEN   POST   HALLECK,  M.A.  (Yale) 
Cloth,  12mo,  368  pages.     Illustrated      ....         Price  $1 .25 


This  new  text-book  in  Psychology  and  Psychic  Culture 
is  suitable  for  use  in  High  School,  Academy  and  College 
classes,  being  simple  and  elementary  enough  for  beginners 
and  at  the  same  time  complete  and  comprehensive  enough 
for  advanced  classes  in  the  study.  It  is  also  well  suited 
for  private  students  and  general  readers,  the  subjects  being 
treated  in  such  an  attractive  manner  and  relieved  by  so 
many  apt  illustrations  and  examples  as  to  fix  the  attention 
and  deeply  impress  the  mind. 

The  work  includes  a  full  statement  and  clear  exposition 
of  the  coordinate  branches  of  the  study — physiological  and 
introspective  psychology.  The  physical  basis  of  Psychol- 
ogy is  fully  recognized.  Special  attention  is  given  to 
the  cultivation  of  the  mental  faculties,  making  the  work 
practically  useful  for  self-improvement.  The  treatment 
throughout  is  singularly  clear  and  plain  and  in  harmony 
with  its  aims  and  purpose. 

"  Halleck's  Psychology  pleases  me  very  much.  It  is  short,  clear, 
interesting,  and  full  of  common  sense  and  originality  of  illustration. 
I  can  sincerely  recommend  it." 

WILLIAM  JAMES, 
Professor  of  Psychology,  Harvard  University. 


Copies  of  Halleck's  Psychology  will  be  sent,  prepaid,  to  any  address  on 
receipt  of  the  price  by  the  Publishers  : 


American  Book  Company 


New  York  *  Cincinnati  *  Chicago 

(193) 


Mind-Training 

BY  CATHARINE  AIKEN 


AIKEN'S  METHODS  OF  MIND-TRAINING 

Cloth,  I2mo.     no  pages V        $1.00 

AIKEN'S  EXERCISES  IN  MIND-TRAINING 

Cloth,  I2mo.     122  pages          ,         ,         ,        >         .       ..-..    .     $1.00 

For  many  years  there  has  been  a  growing  dissatisfaction 
with  the  prevailing  methods  of  teaching  in  our  schools. 
It  is  claimed  that  teachers  adhere  too  closely  to  the  pages 
of  the  book,  and  that  consequently  the  mental  faculties 
of  the  pupil  are  inadequately  developed.  Upon  leaving 
school  it  is  often  found  that  students  have  formed  no 
habits  of  attention,  or  of  accurate  observation  and  dis- 
crimination, and  consequently  have  no  power  for  logical 
thought  and  consecutive  study. 

To  remedy  these  evils  Miss  Aiken  introduced  into  her 
school  new  methods  of  training  the  mind.  Her  efforts 
resulted  in  extraordinary  success  and  attracted  the  atten- 
tion of  the  foremost  educators  throughout  the  country. 
For  the  benefit  of  others  she  has  been  induced  to  embody 
her  ideas  in  these  two  books.  They  are  certain  to  have  a 
marked  influence  on  the  teaching  of  the  day,  and  to  prove 
among  the  most  helpful  books  for  teachers  ever  published, 
opening  an  entirely  new  field  of  training,  and  making  the 
work  easier  and  the  results  greater. 


Copies  sent,  prepaid,  to  any  address  on  receipt  of  the  price. 

American   Book  Company 

New  York  •  Cincinnati  i  Chicago 

(201) 


For  Teachers  and  School  Officers 


KING'S  SCHOOL  INTERESTS  AND  DUTIES 

Developed  from  "  Page's  Mutual  Duties  of  Parents  and  Teachers," 
from  various  Public  Records  and  Documents,  and  from  the  Bulletins 
of  the  National  Bureau  of  Education.  By  ROBERT  M.  KING. 

Cloth,  12mo,  336  pages       .         .        .        ^        .         .         .     $1.00 

This  new  work,  original  in  its  scope  and  plan,  presents  in  one 
volume  interesting  and  valuable  expositions  of  the  modern  demands, 
best  methods,  and  most  important  interests  of  our  Public  School 
Systems.  Its  central  idea  is  to  show  the  importance  and  value  of 
co-operation  in  school  work  and  the  mutual  duties  of  teachers,  school 
officers,  and  parents.  It  also  embodies  synopses  of  the  discussions  on 
leading  educational  topics  from  the  various  fugitive  reports  and  manuals 
issued,  from  time  to  time,  by  school  officials  and  State  Departments  of 
Education.  It  will  be  found  an  invaluable  manual  and  guide  for 
school  superintendents,  officers,  and  patrons,  and,  indeed,  for  every  one 
interested  in  educational  work. 

MANN'S  SCHOOL  RECREATIONS  AND  AMUSEMENTS 

By  CHARLES  W.  MANN,  A.M.,  Dean  of  the  Chicago  Academy. 
Cloth,  12mo,  352  pages $1.00 

This  volume  not  only  opens  up  a  new  field  of  much  needed  informa- 
tion and  direction  in  the  matter  of  physical  training  of  pupils,  but  also 
furnishes  suggestions  for  intellectual  recreations  which  will  greatly  add 
to  the  interest  and  value  of  school  work  and  lend  a  charm  to  school  life 
in  all  its  phases.  Some  of  the  subjects  treated  in  this  work  are:  Morning 
Exercises,  Care  and  Equipment  of  Schoolrooms,  Singing  Games  and 
Songs,  Indoor  Exercises  and  Outdoor  Games,  Experiments  in  Physics 
and  Chemistry,  Recreations  in  Latin,  Outline  for  Reading  Circles,  etc. 


Copies  of  the  above  books  will  be  s/nt,  prepaid,  to  any  address  on  receipt  of 
the  price  by  the  Publishers  : 

American   Book  Company 

New  York  *  Cincinnati  *  Chicago 

(204) 


Important    Pedagogical    Works 

By  RURIC  N.  ROARK 
Dean  of  the  Department  of  Pedagogy,  Kentucky  State  College 


ROARK'S  PSYCHOLOGY  IN  EDUCATION,  $1.00 

This  new  work  is  designed  for  use  as  a  text-book  in 
Secondary  and  Normal  Schools,Teachers'  Training  Classes, 
and  Reading  Circles.  The  general  purpose  of  the  book  is 
to  give  teachers  a  logical  and  scientific  basis  for  their  daily 
work  in  the  schoolroom.  It  makes  a  distinct  departure 
from  the  methods  heretofore  in  vogue  in  the  treatment  of 
Psychology,  and  is  justly  regarded  as  the  most  important 
contribution  to  pedagogical  science  and  literature  in 
recent  years. 

ROARK'S  METHOD  IN  EDUCATION     -    $1.00 

The  second  book  of  Roajk's  Pedagogical  Series  is 
designed  for  Normal  Schools  and  Teachers'  Reading 
Circles,  and  for  private  reading  by  every  teacher  who  seeks 
a  key  to  the  solution  of  the  problems  that  present  them- 
selves in  the  schoolroom.  By  its  practical  application  and 
illustration  of  sound  pedagogical  principles,  it  presents  a 
working  manual  of  great  helpfulness  to  all  teachers,  both 
to  the  experienced  and  the  inexperienced. 

ROARK'S   ECONOMY    IN    EDUCATION,   $1.00 

This  book  deals  with  the  problems  confronting  the 
individual  teacher  in  the  successful  administration  of  his 
school,  and  also  with  the  larger  problems  of  the  school  as 
a  part  of  the  institutional  life  and  growth  of  modern 
society.  The  book  is  not  only  invaluable  to  the  individual 
teacher  in  any  grade  of  work,  but  it  is  especially  adapted 
for  use  as  a  text  in  Normal  Schools,  Teachers'  Reading 
Courses,  and  College  Departments  of  Pedagogy. 

AMERICAN   BOOK  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK  CINCINNATI  CHICAGO 

(iQ9) 


A  Complete  System  of  Pedagogy 

IN    THREE    VOLUMES 
BY  EMERSON   E.  WHITE,  A.M.,  LL.D. 


THE  ART  OF  TEACHING.     Cloth,  321  pages      «        .      Price,  $1.00 

This^  new  work  in  Pedagogy  is  a  scientific  and  practical  considera- 
tion of  teaching  as  an  art.  It  presents  in  a  lucid  manner  the  fundamental 
principles  of  teaching,  and  then  applies  them  in  generic  and  compre- 
hensive methods.  The  closing  chapters  discuss  in  a  masterly  way  the 
teaching  of  reading,  language,  arithmetic,  geography,  and  other 
elementary  branches.  The  author  also  considers  most  helpfully  the 
various  problems  connected  with  teaching,  including  oral  instruction, 
book  study,  class  instruction  and  management,  examinations,  promotion 
of  pupils,  etc. 

ELEMENTS  OF  PEDAGOGY.     Cloth,  336  pages    .        .     Price,  $1.00 

This  treatise,  by  unanimous  verdict  of  the  teachers'  profession,  has 
been  accepted  as  the  leading  standard  authority  on  the  subject.  From 
its  first  publication  it  has  met  with  the  greatest  favor,  and  its  wide  cir- 
culation ever  since  has  been  phenomenal.  It  has  been  adopted  in  more 
Normal  Schools,  Teachers'  Institutes,  and  State  Reading  Circles,  than 
any  other  book  of  its  class.  This  wide  circulation  and  popularity  is 
directly  attributable  to  the  intrinsic  value  and  merit  of  the  book  itself 
and  the  reputation  of  its  author,  who  is  everywhere  recognized  as  pre- 
eminently qualified  to  speak  or  write  with  authority  on  educational 
subjects. 

SCHOOL   MANAGEMENT.     Cloth,  320  pages      .        .       Price,  $1.00 

The  first  part  of  this  work  is  devoted  to  "School  organization  and 
discipline,  and  the  second  part  to  moral  training.  Principles  are  clearly 
stated  and  aptly  illustrated  by  examples  drawn  largely  from  the  author's 
own  wide  experience.  A  clear  light  is  thrown  on  the  most  important 
problems  in  school  management.  The  necessity  for  moral  training, 
which,  in  the  minds  of  many,  also  involves  religious  instruction,  will 
make  the  second  part  of  this  book  a  welcome  contribution  to  pedagogical 
literature.  The  subject  is  thoroughly  and  wisely  treated,  and  the  mate- 
rials which  are  provided  for  moral  lessons  will  be  highly  appreciated  by 
all  teachers  who  feel  the  importance  of  this  work. 


Copies  sent,  prepaid,  to  any  address  on  receipt  of  the  price. 

American   Book  Company 

New  York  *  Cincinnati  •  Chicago 


(200) 


Page's  Theory  and  Practice  of  Teaching 

EDITED  BY  E.  C.  BRANSON,  A.M. 
Professor  of  Pedagogy,  Georgia  State  Normal  School. 

Cloth,  12mo,  385  pages    .         .       ;'i         .        .         .         .    Price, $1.00 


For  more  than  half  a  century  Page's  Theory  and  Prac- 
tice of  Teaching  has  been  the  recognized  standard  and 
accepted  mentor  of  the  teachers'  profession.  Since  its 
first  publication  in  1847  it  has  passed  through  more 
editions,  has  been  more  largely  read,  and  has  exerted  a 
deeper  influence  upon  successive  generations  of  teachers 
than  any  other  work  ever  published.  Its  usefulness  and 
popularity  remain  undiminished;  it  is  still  the  first  book 
recommended  for  the  young  teacher's  reading  and  guid- 
ance, and  still  continues  a  never  failing  source  of 
instruction  and  inspiration  in  the  teacher's  work. 

In  the  present  edition  the  publishers  have  given  the 
original  work  the  most  attractive  form  and  dress  in  which 
it  has  ever  been  presented  to  the  public.  The  chapters 
are  introduced  by  apposite  quotations  and  are  followed  by 
topical  outlines,  subjects  for  discussions  or  papers,  refer- 
ences to  pedagogical  works,  bibliographies  of  teachers' 
books,  and  such  other  aids  as  will  serve  to  heighten  the 
value  of  the  original  work  for  private  students,  for 
classrooms,  and  for  reading  circles. 


Copies  sent,  prepaid,  to  any  address  on  receipt  of  the  price. 

American    Book   Company 

New  York  •  Cincinnati  ••  •  Chicago 

(198) 


Manual  of  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States 


By  ISRAEL  WARD  ANDREWS,  D.D.,  LL.D. 
Late  President  of  Marietta  College 

Reset^  and  Revised  to  igoi  by 
HOMER  MORRIS,  LL.B.,  of  the  Cincinnati  Bar. 

Cloth,  12mo,  431  pages Price,  $1,00 

The  development  of  Civil  Government  in  the  United  States  during 
the  past  twenty-five  years  has  rendered  necessary  the  thorough  revision 
and  resetting  of  Andrews's  Manual  of  the  Constitution — a  text-book 
which,  in  spite  of  numerous  competitors  published  during  the  past  decade, 
has  continually  increased  in  favor  with  teachers  and  students. 

The  book  has  been  brought  up  to  date  in  all  particulars — including 
especially  the  more  recent  interpretations  of  the  Constitution  by  the 
courts,  and  the  important  statutes  calculated  to  produce  permanent 
political  effect.  The  utmost  care,  however,  has  been  taken  to  keep  to 
the  original  design  of  the  book;  and  those  familiar  with  the  work  will 
find  that  no  violence  has  been  done  to  its  original  character. 

Andrews's  Manual  grew  out  of  the  necessities  and  experiences  of 
the  class  room.  For  the  proper  instruction  of  the  student  in  the  im- 
portant subject  of  Civil  Government,  a  clear  exposition  of  the  great 
principles  of  the  Constitution  is  needed,  with  a  summary  of  the  legislative 
provisions  in  which  they  have  been  embodied.  The  author  embodied  in 
the  work  that  kind — and,  so  far  as  space  would  allow,  that  amount — of 
information  on  the  various  topics  which  an  intelligent  citizen  would 
desire  to  possess. 

As  the  value  of  a  work  of  this  kind  depends  in  large  measure  upon 
its  accuracy,  it  is  proper  to  say  that  in  nearly  every  instance  the  state- 
ments touching  the  legislation  or  other  action  of  the  government  have 
been  taken  from  official  publications. 


Copies  sent,  prepaid,  to  any  address  on  receipt  of  price  by  the  Publishers  : 

American   Book  Company 

New  York  «  Cincinnati  •  Chicago 


Fisher's  Brief  History  of  the  Nations 

AND  OF  THEIR  PROGRESS   IN  CIVILIZATION 

BY  GEORGE  PARK  FISHER,  LL.D. 

Professor  in  Yale  University. 

Cloth,  I2mo,  613  pages,  with  numerous  Illustrations,  Maps,  Tables,  and 
Reproductions  of  Bas-reliefs,  Portraits,  and  Paintings.     Price,  $1  50 


This  is  an  entirely  new  work  written  expressly  to  meet 
the  demand  for  a  compact  and  acceptable  text-book  on 
General  History  for  high  schools,  academies,  and  private 
schools.  Some  of  the  distinctive  qualities  which  will  com- 
mend this  book  to  teachers  and  students  are  as  follows: 

It  narrates  in  fresh,  vigorous,  and  attractive  style  the 
most  important  facts  of  history  in  their  due  order  and 
connection. 

It  explains  the  nature  of  historical  evidence,  and  records 
only  well  established  judgments  respecting  persons  and 
events. 

It  delineates  the  progress  of  peoples  and  nations  in 
civilization  as  well  as  the  rise  and  succession  of  dynasties. 

It  connects,  in  a  single  chain  of  narration,  events 
related  to  each  other  in  the  contemporary  history  of 
different  nations  and  countries. 

It  gives  special  prominence  to  the  history  of  the 
Mediaeval  and  Modern  Periods,  —  the  eras  of  greatest 
import  to  modern  students. 

It  is  written  from  the  standpoint  of  the  present,  and 
incorporates  the  latest  discoveries  of  historical  explorers 
and  writers. 

It  is  illustrated  by  numerous  colored  maps,  genealogical 
tables,  and  artistic  reproductions  of  architecture,  sculpture, 
painting,  and  portraits  of  celebrated  men,  representing 
every  period  of  the  world's  history. 


Copies  of  Faker's  Brief  History  of  the  Nations  will  be  sent,  prepaid,  to 
any  address  on  receipt  of  the  price  by  the  Publishers  : 

American  Book  Company 

•  Cincinnati  •  Chicago 


Gateway  Series  of  English  Texts 

General  Editor,  HENRY  VAN  DYKE,  Princeton  University 

The  English  Texts  which  are  required  for  entrance  to  college, 
edited  by  eminent  authorities,  and  presented  in  a  clear,  helpful, 
and  interesting  form.  A  list  of  the  volumes  and  of  their  editors 
follows.  More  detailed  information  will  be  gladly  supplied  on 
request. 

Shakespeare's  Merchant  of  Venice.  Professor  Felix  E.  Schelling, 
University  of  Pennsylvania.  35  cents. 

Shakespeare's  Julius  Caesar.  Dr.  Hamilton  W.  Mabie,  "The 
Outlook."  35  cents. 

Shakespeare's  Macbeth.  Professor  T.  M.  Parrot,  Princeton 
University.  40  cents. 

Milton's  Minor  Poems.  Professor  Mary  A.  Jordan,  Smith 
College.  35  cents. 

Addison's  Sir  Roger  de  Coverley  Papers.  Professor  0.  T.  Win- 
chester, Wesleyan  University.  40  cents. 

Goldsmith's  Vicar  of  Wakefield.  Professor  James  A.  Tufts, 
Phillips  Exeter  Academy.  45  cents. 

Burke's  Speech  on  Conciliation.  Professor  William  MacDonald, 
Brown  University.  35  cents. 

Coleridge's  The  Ancient  Mariner.  Professor  Geo.  E.  Wood- 
berry,  Columbia  University.  30  cents. 

Scott's  Ivanhoe.  Professor  Francis  H.  Stoddard,  New  York 
University.  50  cents. 

Scott's  Lady  of  the  Lake.  Professor  R.  M.  Alden,  Leland  Stan- 
ford Jr.  University.  40  cents. 

Macaulay's  Milton.  Rev.  E.  L.  Gulick,  Lawrenceville  School. 
35  cents. 

Macaulay's  Addison.  Professor  Charles  F.  McClumpha,  Uni- 
versity of  Minnesota.  35  cents. 

Carlyle's  Essay  on  Burns.  Professor  Edwin  Mims,  Trinity 
College,  North  Carolina.  35  cents. 

George  Eliot's  Silas  Marner.  Professor  W.  L.  Cross,  Yale 
University.  40  cents. 

Tennyson's  Princess.  Professor  Katharine  Lee  Bates,  Wellesley 
College.  40  cents. 

Tennyson's  Gareth  and  Lynette,  Lancelot  and  Elaine,  and  The 
Passing  of  Arthur.  Dr.  Henry  van  Dyke,  Princeton  Uni- 
versity. 35  cents. 

Macaulay's  Life  of  Johnson.  Professor  J.  Scott  Clark,  North- 
western University.  35  cents. 


AMERICAN    BOOK    COMPANY 

[99] 


A  Descriptive  Catalogue 
of  High  School  and 
College  Text-Books 


WE  issue  a  complete  descriptive  catalogue  of  our 
text-books  for  secondary  schools  and  higher  institu- 
tions, illustrated  with  authors'  portraits.  For  the  con- 
venience of  teachers,  separate  sections  are  published, 
devoted  to  the  newest  and  best  books  in  the  following 
branches  of  study: 

ENGLISH 

MATHEMATICS 

HISTORY  AND  POLITICAL  SCIENCE 

SCIENCE 

MODERN  LANGUAGES 

ANCIENT  LANGUAGES 

PHILOSOPHY  AND  EDUCATION 

If  you  are  interested  in  any  of  these  branches,  we 
shall  be  very  glad  to  send  you  on  request  the  catalogue 
sections  which  you  may  wish  to  see.  Address  the  nearest 
office  of  the  Company. 


AMERICAN  BOOK  COMPANY 

Publishers  of  School  and  College  Text-Books 

NEW  YORK  CINCINNATI  CHICAGO 

BOSTON  ATLANTA  DALLAS  SAN   FRANCISCO 


RETURN     CIRCULATION  DEPARTMENT 
TO—*-     202  Main  Library 

LOAN  PERIOD  1 
HOME  USE 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

1  -month  loans  may  be  renewed  by  calling  642-3405 

6^rnonth  loans  may  be  recharged  by  bringing  books  to  Circulation 

Renewals  and  recharges  may  be  made  4  days  prior  to  due  date 

DUE  AS  STAMPED  BELOW" 


REC.  ciR.    FEB  1  5 

79 

ill-  P.  1719B7 

* 

MtiHC  wur  £  5  iw 

MAR  111 

m 

FEB  2 

I  2007 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA,  BERKELEY 
FORM  NO.  DD6,  40m,  3/78  BERKELEY,  CA  94720 


®$ 


U.C.  BERKELEY  LIBRARIES 


305425  : 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

-   •'-»'»'' 


